W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Shares Sold by Advisor OS LLC

Advisor OS LLC lessened its stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 43.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 9,150 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 6,968 shares during the quarter. Advisor OS LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $535,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 48.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $857,814,000 after acquiring an additional 4,947,830 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 51.0% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 11,321,958 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $642,294,000 after purchasing an additional 3,825,238 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 47.9% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,591,353 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $429,266,000 after buying an additional 2,459,073 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 55.1% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $417,897,000 after buying an additional 2,616,227 shares in the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 104.1% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,154,783 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $235,701,000 after buying an additional 2,118,641 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on WRB. StockNews.com cut shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, November 25th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $63.00 price target on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $65.00 target price on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $64.36.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of WRB opened at $61.34 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1 year low of $50.73 and a 1 year high of $65.49. The company’s fifty day moving average is $59.35 and its two-hundred day moving average is $59.35.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.52%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.34%.

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.