Ethic Inc. Sells 1,165 Shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Ethic Inc. reduced its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 3.4% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 33,148 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 1,165 shares during the quarter. Ethic Inc.’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $2,329,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Brighton Jones LLC boosted 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 valued at $2,955,000 after acquiring an additional 21,737 shares during the period. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in W.R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $5,676,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main bought a new stake in W.R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $663,000. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH boosted its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 3.2% during the first quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH now owns 247,919 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $17,642,000 after purchasing an additional 7,702 shares during the period. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors grew its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 10.6% in the fourth quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 43,248 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,531,000 after purchasing an additional 4,159 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of W.R. Berkley from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, May 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of W.R. Berkley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $74.00 to $76.00 in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $63.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 19th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, TD Cowen cut W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $78.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Friday, June 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $72.54.

W.R. Berkley Stock Performance

W.R. Berkley stock opened at $70.75 on Monday. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $55.80 and a fifty-two week high of $76.38. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $70.70 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $68.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a current ratio of 0.37. The stock has a market cap of $26.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.12, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.39.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.03 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $3.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 18.83% and a net margin of 12.32%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.04 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 23rd were given a dividend of $0.09 per share. This is an increase from W.R. Berkley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 23rd. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is 8.20%.

W.R. Berkley Company 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.