W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB Shares Sold by Parnassus Investments LLC

Key Points

• Parnassus Investments LLC reduced its stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation by 7.8%, selling 82,293 shares and owning a total of 978,174 shares valued at $69.6 million.
• W.R. Berkley Corporation recently reported earnings of $1.05 per share, exceeding analysts' expectations, with revenue amounting to $3.10 billion for the quarter.
• The company increased its quarterly dividend from $0.08 to $0.09 per share, reflecting a 0.5% dividend yield and a payout ratio of 8.20%.

Parnassus Investments LLC decreased its stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 7.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 978,174 shares of the insurance provider's stock after selling 82,293 shares during the quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC owned 0.26% of W.R. Berkley worth $69,607,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Spectrum Wealth Counsel LLC purchased a new stake in W.R. Berkley in the 1st quarter worth about $29,000. Garde Capital Inc. bought a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $30,000. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in W.R. Berkley in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Finally, Keystone Global Partners LLC acquired a new stake in W.R. Berkley in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WRB has been the topic of several recent research reports. Barclays lifted 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. Wall Street Zen lowered W.R. Berkley from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on W.R. Berkley from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded W.R. Berkley from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $74.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on W.R. Berkley from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $72.54.

W.R. Berkley Stock Down 0.6%

WRB opened at $71.24 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $27.02 billion, a PE ratio of 16.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a current ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 1-year low of $55.80 and a 1-year high of $76.38. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $70.49 and its 200 day simple moving average is $69.02.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.03 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $3.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 18.83% and a net margin of 12.32%.During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.04 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.09 per share. 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. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. W.R. Berkley's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.20%.

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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