W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) Shares Bought by Argent Trust Co

Key Points

• Argent Trust Co significantly increased its stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation by 455.8%, adding 17,686 shares during the first quarter, bringing its total holdings to 21,566 shares valued at $1.53 million.
• W.R. Berkley Corporation reported $1.05 EPS for the last quarter, exceeding analyst expectations by $0.02, with a revenue of $3.10 billion.
• The company recently raised its quarterly dividend to $0.09 per share, reflecting an annualized increase to $0.36 and a dividend yield of 0.5%.

Argent Trust Co grew its stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 455.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 21,566 shares of the insurance provider's stock after purchasing an additional 17,686 shares during the period. Argent Trust Co's holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $1,535,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in W.R. Berkley by 75.6% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 50,503 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $2,955,000 after buying an additional 21,737 shares during the period. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC boosted its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 28.4% in the fourth quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 11,637 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $681,000 after acquiring an additional 2,576 shares in the last quarter. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP increased its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 47.6% during the fourth quarter. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP now owns 75,017 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $4,390,000 after acquiring an additional 24,207 shares during the period. Wells Fargo & Company MN raised its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 2,869,705 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $167,935,000 after purchasing an additional 104,479 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in W.R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at about $7,723,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company's stock.

W.R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $69.24 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The company's 50-day moving average price is $71.40 and its 200 day moving average price is $67.62. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 52 week low of $53.65 and a 52 week high of $76.38. The stock has a market cap of $26.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.77, a PEG ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.39.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.05 EPS 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 19.22%. The business had revenue of $3.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.04 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 23rd were issued a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. This is a positive change from W.R. Berkley's previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 23rd. W.R. Berkley's payout ratio is presently 8.20%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on WRB. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on W.R. Berkley from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th. Barclays upped their price objective on W.R. Berkley from $62.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Monday, July 7th. UBS Group raised their target price on W.R. Berkley from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Finally, TD Cowen cut shares of W.R. Berkley from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $78.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Friday, June 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, W.R. Berkley has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $71.75.

About W.R. Berkley

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.

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