Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. Purchases 7,567 Shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 5.6% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 143,282 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 7,567 shares during the quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $10,508,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 0.6% during the second 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 last quarter. Czech National Bank boosted its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 6.3% during the 2nd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 73,255 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $5,382,000 after purchasing an additional 4,336 shares during the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc increased its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 3.9% in the second quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 100,631 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $7,393,000 after purchasing an additional 3,750 shares during the last quarter. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec lifted its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 70.8% in 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 buying an additional 7,131 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gallacher Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in W.R. Berkley during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $323,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WRB has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald set a $78.00 target price on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Monday, October 27th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $87.00 target price on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Friday. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Monday, September 15th. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on W.R. Berkley from $76.00 to $75.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company 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 a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $74.46.

W.R. Berkley Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $74.94 on Friday. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 1 year low of $55.97 and a 1 year high of $78.48. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $74.34 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $72.52. The company has a market cap of $28.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.74, a PEG ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.40. 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 released its earnings results on Monday, October 20th. The insurance provider reported $1.10 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 firm had revenue of $3.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.16 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.93 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

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