Wealthfront Advisers LLC Acquires 3,870 Shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB)

Wealthfront Advisers LLC raised its stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 28.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 17,412 shares of the insurance provider's stock after buying an additional 3,870 shares during the quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC's holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $1,239,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of WRB. Mather Group LLC. boosted its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 2.5% in the first quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 5,929 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $422,000 after acquiring an additional 142 shares during the period. Avior Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in W.R. Berkley by 2.0% during the first quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,029 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $571,000 after acquiring an additional 155 shares in the last quarter. Pullen Investment Management LLC raised its stake in W.R. Berkley by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Pullen Investment Management LLC now owns 22,954 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $1,343,000 after acquiring an additional 161 shares in the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC raised its stake in W.R. Berkley by 0.7% during the first quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 23,237 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $1,654,000 after acquiring an additional 162 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CHB Investment Group LLC increased its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 0.3% in the first quarter. CHB Investment Group LLC now owns 50,557 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $3,598,000 after buying an additional 172 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on WRB. Truist Financial upped their price objective on W.R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. TD Cowen cut W.R. Berkley from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $78.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Friday, June 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut W.R. Berkley from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating and increased their target price for the stock from $74.00 to $76.00 in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on W.R. Berkley from $63.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered W.R. Berkley from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $71.75.

W.R. Berkley Price Performance

WRB remained flat at $68.54 during trading hours on Wednesday. The company had a trading volume of 2,780,858 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,804,239. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $72.01 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $66.98. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 52 week low of $52.10 and a 52 week high of $76.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.00 billion, a PE ratio of 15.61, a PEG ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates 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 firm had revenue of $3.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.04 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 23rd were given a $0.09 dividend. This is a positive change from W.R. Berkley's previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 23rd. W.R. Berkley's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.35%.

W.R. Berkley Company 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.