W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Shares Sold by Banque Cantonale Vaudoise

Banque Cantonale Vaudoise trimmed its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB – Get Rating) by 8.6% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 9,506 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 900 shares during the quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $690,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of WRB. AMI Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 47.6% during the first quarter. AMI Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,609 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $307,000 after purchasing an additional 1,487 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 73.3% during the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 18,008 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,199,000 after purchasing an additional 7,615 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 120.9% during the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 12,086 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $804,000 after buying an additional 6,614 shares in the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 55.9% during the first quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 11,874 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $791,000 after buying an additional 4,260 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Advisor Networks LLC bought a new position in W. R. Berkley during the first quarter valued at about $200,000. 71.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $56.10 on Friday. W. R. Berkley Co. has a one year low of $55.67 and a one year high of $76.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.63 billion, a PE ratio of 14.42, a PEG ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a current ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $60.14 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $66.97.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 20th. The insurance provider reported $1.00 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19 by ($0.19). W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 17.98% and a net margin of 9.73%. The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.53 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.10 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on WRB shares. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on W. R. Berkley from $85.00 to $73.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 13th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on W. R. Berkley from $79.00 to $77.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 21st. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on W. R. Berkley from $75.00 to $69.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 10th. StockNews.com started coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on W. R. Berkley from $84.00 to $80.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $77.64.

About W. R. Berkley

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W.R. Berkley Corp. is an insurance holding company, which engages in the property casualty insurance business. It operates through the following segments: Insurance and Reinsurance & Monoline Excess. The Insurance segment includes excess and surplus lines, admitted lines, and specialty personal lines throughout the United States, as well as insurance businesses in the United Kingdom, Continental Europe, South America, Canada, Mexico, Scandinavia, Asia, and Australia.