Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Buys 26,726 Shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 1.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,790,374 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 26,726 shares during the period. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $195,661,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 37,033,581 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,596,795,000 after purchasing an additional 309,828 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 1.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 14,921,114 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,143,256,000 after buying an additional 149,605 shares in the last quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley in the third quarter worth about $682,816,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in W.R. Berkley during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $435,752,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 33.4% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,892,799 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $374,886,000 after buying an additional 1,224,363 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WRB has been the topic of a number of research reports. BMO Capital Markets raised W.R. Berkley from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $64.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered shares of W.R. Berkley from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $75.00 to $71.00 in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Brean Capital cut shares of W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $73.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, March 25th. Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $68.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, Barclays reiterated an “underweight” rating and set a $62.00 price objective (down from $64.00) on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Friday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $68.31.

W.R. Berkley Price Performance

NYSE:WRB opened at $68.15 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.44, a PEG ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $66.60 and a 200-day simple moving average of $68.52. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 1 year low of $62.87 and a 1 year high of $78.96.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.13 by $0.17. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 18.92% and a net margin of 12.64%.The firm had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.18 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.01 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.67 EPS for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 23rd will be given a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. This is a positive change from W.R. Berkley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 23rd. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.63%.

W.R. Berkley Company Profile

W. R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE: WRB) is a publicly traded insurance holding company that underwrites and sells commercial property and casualty insurance, specialty insurance products, and reinsurance. Headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, the company operates a portfolio of underwriting businesses that focus on niche and specialty commercial risks, offering coverage tailored to industries such as transportation, construction, professional services and other commercial lines.

The company’s product mix includes primary and excess casualty, property, professional liability, environmental and other specialty lines, together with treaty and facultative reinsurance solutions.