Victory Capital Management Inc. Has $70.76 Million Stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB)

Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 8.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 994,319 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 79,871 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. owned about 0.26% of W.R. Berkley worth $70,756,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of WRB. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 12.0% during the fourth quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC now owns 4,967 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $304,000 after purchasing an additional 532 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 75.6% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 50,503 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,955,000 after acquiring an additional 21,737 shares during the period. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley in the 4th quarter valued at $5,676,000. Trexquant Investment LP purchased a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley in the 4th quarter worth about $5,787,000. Finally, DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main purchased a new position in W.R. Berkley during the 4th quarter valued at about $663,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. TD Cowen lowered W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $78.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective 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. Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $74.00 price objective (up from $73.00) on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut W.R. Berkley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $74.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, W.R. Berkley has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $72.00.

W.R. Berkley Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of WRB stock opened at $68.15 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current 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 firm has a 50 day moving average price of $72.28 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $66.70. The company has a market capitalization of $25.85 billion, a PE ratio of 15.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.41.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.07). W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 19.66% and a net margin of 12.43%. The business had revenue of $3.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.01 billion. As a group, analysts predict that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 23rd were given a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 23rd. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.53%. This is a boost from W.R. Berkley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.35%.

W.R. Berkley 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.