73,590 Shares in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) Acquired by Mattern Capital Management LLC

Mattern Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm acquired 73,590 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,237,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Global Assets Advisory LLC purchased a new position in W.R. Berkley in the first quarter worth approximately $470,000. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. grew its position in W.R. Berkley by 5.3% in the first quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 136,953 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $9,746,000 after acquiring an additional 6,841 shares during the period. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. grew its position in W.R. Berkley by 1.8% in the first quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 182,633 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $12,996,000 after acquiring an additional 3,219 shares during the period. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. boosted its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 4.2% during the first quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 4,842 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $345,000 after buying an additional 194 shares during the period. Finally, Illumine Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 0.4% during the first quarter. Illumine Investment Management LLC now owns 51,697 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,679,000 after buying an additional 197 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on WRB. Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and set a $74.00 price target (up from $73.00) on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on W.R. Berkley from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on W.R. Berkley from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Barclays raised their price target on W.R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on W.R. Berkley from $63.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, W.R. Berkley currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $70.64.

W.R. Berkley Stock Down 0.9%

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $73.23 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $27.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.99, a PEG ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 12-month low of $51.41 and a 12-month high of $76.38. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $72.44 and its 200-day simple moving average is $65.44.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.07). The company 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 12.43% and a return on equity of 19.66%. As a group, equities analysts predict that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 23rd will be paid a $0.09 dividend. This is a boost from W.R. Berkley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 23rd. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.35%.

W.R. Berkley Company 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.