Woodline Partners LP Increases Stock Holdings in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Key Points

• Woodline Partners LP increased its stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation by an impressive 4,198.9% in Q1, acquiring 759,122 shares and bringing its total ownership to 777,201 shares, valued at approximately $55.3 million.
• Analyst ratings reveal a mixed outlook for W.R. Berkley, with a consensus rating of "Hold" and average target price of $72.54, as various firms adjust their price targets following recent earnings reports.
• The company recently announced a dividend increase from $0.08 to $0.09 per quarter, reflecting ongoing financial strength, with a current dividend yield of 0.5%.

Woodline Partners LP increased its stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 4,198.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 777,201 shares of the insurance provider's stock after buying an additional 759,122 shares during the period. Woodline Partners LP owned 0.20% of W.R. Berkley worth $55,306,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in W.R. Berkley by 21.8% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,022,039 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $357,368,000 after acquiring an additional 900,071 shares in the last quarter. Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC boosted its stake in W.R. Berkley by 7,314.0% during the first quarter. Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC now owns 744,516 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $52,980,000 after acquiring an additional 734,474 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in W.R. Berkley by 8,709.4% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 671,893 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $47,812,000 after acquiring an additional 664,266 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in W.R. Berkley during the first quarter worth about $44,210,000. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in W.R. Berkley by 22.4% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,487,097 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $145,545,000 after acquiring an additional 455,311 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WRB has been the topic of several research reports. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of W.R. Berkley to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. TD Cowen cut shares of W.R. Berkley from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $78.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of W.R. Berkley from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $63.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, May 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $72.54.

W.R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of WRB traded up $0.10 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $73.88. 1,496,581 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,891,286. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a current ratio of 0.37. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $70.44 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $69.80. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 1 year low of $55.80 and a 1 year high of $76.38. The stock has a market cap of $28.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.83, a P/E/G ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.41.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.03 by $0.02. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.32% and a return on equity of 18.83%. The firm had revenue of $3.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.04 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 22nd will be given a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 22nd. W.R. Berkley's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.20%.

W.R. Berkley Profile

W. R. Berkley Corporation, an insurance holding company, operates as a commercial lines writers worldwide. It operates in two segments, Insurance and Reinsurance & Monoline Excess. The Insurance segment underwrites commercial insurance business, including excess and surplus lines, admitted lines, and specialty personal lines.