W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB Shares Purchased by SG Americas Securities LLC

SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 64.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 43,472 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 17,037 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $3,194,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its position in W.R. Berkley by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 737,183 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $54,161,000 after acquiring an additional 4,423 shares during the period. Czech National Bank raised its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 6.3% during the second quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 73,255 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $5,382,000 after purchasing an additional 4,336 shares during the last quarter. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec lifted its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 70.8% during the first quarter. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec now owns 17,197 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,224,000 after purchasing an additional 7,131 shares during the period. Atria Investments Inc grew its position in W.R. Berkley by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 100,631 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $7,393,000 after buying an additional 3,750 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gallacher Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in W.R. Berkley in the 2nd quarter valued at $323,000. 68.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on WRB shares. Cantor Fitzgerald set a $78.00 target price on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $87.00 target price on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Friday, November 7th. BMO Capital Markets downgraded W.R. Berkley from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $64.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Barclays restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $73.00 price target on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, W.R. Berkley presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $74.85.

W.R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WRB opened at $77.49 on Wednesday. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 12 month low of $55.97 and a 12 month high of $78.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $29.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.40. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $74.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $72.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.37.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its earnings results on Monday, October 20th. The insurance provider reported $1.10 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $3.77 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.16 billion. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 19.35% and a net margin of 13.01%.W.R. Berkley’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.93 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W.R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 22nd were paid a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 22nd. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 7.56%.

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.