OLD Point Trust & Financial Services N A Purchases 2,500 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

OLD Point Trust & Financial Services N A grew its position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 17.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 17,055 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,500 shares during the period. OLD Point Trust & Financial Services N A’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $998,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of WRB. State Street Corp grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 48.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $857,814,000 after purchasing an additional 4,947,830 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake in W. R. Berkley by 51.0% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 11,321,958 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $642,294,000 after buying an additional 3,825,238 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in 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. increased its position in W. R. Berkley by 55.1% during 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 raised its stake in W. R. Berkley by 104.1% in the third 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on WRB shares. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $63.00 price target on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. StockNews.com lowered shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, November 25th. 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $64.36.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of WRB opened at $63.65 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $24.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.59, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.63. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52 week low of $50.73 and a 52 week high of $65.49. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $60.75 and its 200-day moving average price is $59.87. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 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 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 7.34%.

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.