W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Shares Purchased by Tudor Investment Corp ET AL

Tudor Investment Corp ET AL lifted its holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 41.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 391,635 shares of the insurance provider's stock after acquiring an additional 114,397 shares during the period. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL owned 0.10% of W. R. Berkley worth $22,918,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Whipplewood Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the 4th quarter valued at about $35,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter worth about $42,000. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter worth about $59,000. Tortoise Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 69.9% in the fourth quarter. Tortoise Investment Management LLC now owns 1,313 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $77,000 after purchasing an additional 540 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. bought a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter worth about $79,000. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company's stock.

W. R. Berkley Stock Down 0.7 %

W. R. Berkley stock traded down $0.49 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $71.20. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,581,583 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,768,389. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $66.13 and its 200-day simple moving average is $62.08. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $27.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.32, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.40. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52-week low of $51.17 and a 52-week high of $76.38.

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

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

WRB has been the subject of several analyst reports. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday. Barclays raised their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. StockNews.com lowered shares of W. R. Berkley from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Bank of America reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $74.00 target price (up from $73.00) on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $68.39.

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.