Vanguard Group Inc. Has $2.72 Billion Position in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 36,961,788 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 625,685 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 0.10% of W.R. Berkley worth $2,715,583,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. WBI Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley in the 2nd quarter valued at $3,016,000. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in W.R. Berkley by 5.6% in the second quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 99,821 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $7,334,000 after purchasing an additional 5,320 shares in the last quarter. Integrated Quantitative Investments LLC acquired a new position in W.R. Berkley during the second quarter valued at approximately $792,000. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI grew its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 12.9% in the second quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 3,856 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $284,000 after buying an additional 442 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board bought a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley in the 2nd quarter valued at about $449,000. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W.R. Berkley Price Performance

W.R. Berkley stock opened at $77.29 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $29.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.24, a PEG ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.40. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 12 month low of $55.97 and a 12 month high of $78.48. 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 business’s 50 day simple moving average is $75.12 and its 200 day simple moving average is $72.85.

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

W.R. Berkley Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WRB has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley set a $80.00 price target on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Monday. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $87.00 price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $66.00 price target on shares of W.R. Berkley and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $84.00 target price on W.R. Berkley and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $74.85.

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.