Adalta Capital Management LLC Takes $61,000 Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Adalta Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 1,045 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $61,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Optiver Holding B.V. increased its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 107.3% in the 4th quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 427 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares during the period. Whipplewood Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley during the fourth quarter worth approximately $42,000. Finally, Colonial Trust Co SC grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 79.9% in the 4th quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC now owns 822 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $48,000 after buying an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

WRB opened at $73.47 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The firm has a market cap of $27.87 billion, a PE ratio of 16.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.44. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $68.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $63.42. W. R. Berkley Co. has a fifty-two week low of $51.17 and a fifty-two week high of $76.38.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its 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 company had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.01 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. As a group, equities analysts predict that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on WRB. UBS Group increased their price target on W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $63.00 target price on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Bank of America reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $74.00 price target (up from $73.00) on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $70.06.

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.