Confluence Investment Management LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Confluence Investment Management LLC trimmed its position in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 1,264,289 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 38,566 shares during the quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC owned about 0.33% of W.R. Berkley worth $92,887,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of WRB. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 75.6% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 50,503 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,955,000 after buying an additional 21,737 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 148,880 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $8,712,000 after buying an additional 5,222 shares during the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 16.3% during the fourth quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 7,856 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $460,000 after buying an additional 1,102 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 20.4% during the fourth quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 56,253 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $3,292,000 after buying an additional 9,534 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gotham Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 13,800 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $808,000 after purchasing an additional 473 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WRB has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th. TD Cowen lowered shares of W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $78.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $62.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 7th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of W.R. Berkley to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, W.R. Berkley currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $72.54.

W.R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WRB opened at $73.88 on Friday. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a twelve month low of $55.80 and a twelve month high of $76.38. The company’s 50 day moving average is $70.49 and its 200 day moving average is $69.88. The company has a current ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The company has a market cap of $28.02 billion, a PE ratio of 16.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 0.41.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.03 by $0.02. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.32% and a return on equity of 18.83%. The company had revenue of $3.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.04 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 22nd will be paid a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 22nd. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.20%.

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.