W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Shares Bought by State of Tennessee Department of Treasury

State of Tennessee Department of Treasury increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 27.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 188,159 shares of the insurance provider's stock after purchasing an additional 40,715 shares during the quarter. State of Tennessee Department of Treasury's holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $11,011,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 79.7% during the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 28,241 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $1,653,000 after acquiring an additional 12,521 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 valued at $685,999,000 after purchasing an additional 116,957 shares during the period. MML Investors Services LLC increased its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 41,709 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $2,441,000 after buying an additional 2,674 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 79,550 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $4,655,000 after buying an additional 1,500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Natixis boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 1,722.3% during the 4th quarter. Natixis now owns 173,631 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $10,161,000 after buying an additional 164,103 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WRB has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a "sector perform" rating and issued a $63.00 price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Bank of America restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $74.00 price objective (up from $73.00) on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. UBS Group upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded W. R. Berkley from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $68.39.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of W. R. Berkley stock traded down $0.07 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $70.62. The company's stock had a trading volume of 466,900 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,765,531. The stock has a market cap of $26.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.40. W. R. Berkley Co. has a one year low of $51.13 and a one year high of $76.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $65.70 and a 200-day moving average price of $61.94.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.07). W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. The firm had revenue of $3.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.01 billion. On average, analysts predict that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. W. R. Berkley's payout ratio is 7.42%.

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.