BNP Paribas Financial Markets Reduces Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

BNP Paribas Financial Markets reduced its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 5.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 628,670 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 33,289 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets owned 0.16% of W. R. Berkley worth $36,790,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in WRB. Optiver Holding B.V. increased its stake in W. R. Berkley by 107.3% during the fourth quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 427 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 221 shares during the period. Whipplewood Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter worth approximately $42,000. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in W. R. Berkley in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $59,000. Finally, Tortoise Investment Management LLC boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 69.9% in the 4th quarter. Tortoise Investment Management LLC now owns 1,313 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $77,000 after buying an additional 540 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $63.00 price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped 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 note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price objective 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $68.39.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 0.6 %

WRB opened at $73.12 on Thursday. W. R. Berkley Co. has a one year low of $51.17 and a one year high of $76.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.44. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $67.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $62.51.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.01 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.83% and a net margin of 12.88%. Analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 7.42%.

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.