W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) Shares Sold by Bessemer Group Inc.

Bessemer Group Inc. lowered its position in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 71.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 23,437 shares of the insurance provider's stock after selling 57,365 shares during the quarter. Bessemer Group Inc.'s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $1,668,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in W.R. Berkley by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,436,473 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $2,132,262,000 after acquiring an additional 529,294 shares during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its position in W.R. Berkley by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 11,722,476 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $685,999,000 after acquiring an additional 116,957 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in W.R. Berkley by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,694,703 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $449,168,000 after acquiring an additional 103,350 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its position in W.R. Berkley by 15.2% during the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,787,361 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $280,156,000 after acquiring an additional 632,578 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in W.R. Berkley during the fourth quarter worth approximately $272,582,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WRB has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of W.R. Berkley from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of W.R. Berkley from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating and lifted their price target for the company from $74.00 to $76.00 in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. Finally, TD Cowen lowered 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 report on Friday. 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 data from MarketBeat, W.R. Berkley currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $71.42.

W.R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of WRB stock opened at $72.27 on Friday. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $72.65 and its 200-day simple moving average is $65.66. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 52 week low of $51.41 and a 52 week high of $76.38. 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 has a market cap of $27.42 billion, a PE ratio of 16.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.42.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.08 by ($0.07). W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.43% and a return on equity of 19.66%. The business had revenue of $3.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.01 billion. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 23rd will be paid a dividend of $0.09 per share. This is an increase from W.R. Berkley's previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 23rd. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. W.R. Berkley's payout ratio is 8.35%.

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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