Whittier Trust Co. Sells 304 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Whittier Trust Co. lessened its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 9.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,986 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 304 shares during the quarter. Whittier Trust Co.’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $175,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of WRB. 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 valued at $857,814,000 after acquiring an additional 4,947,830 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its position in shares of 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 valued at $642,294,000 after acquiring an additional 3,825,238 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in 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 worth $417,897,000 after buying an additional 2,616,227 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 211.3% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $208,436,000 after buying an additional 2,493,758 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 47.9% in 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. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on WRB. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Barclays boosted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $63.00 target price on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $64.36.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

WRB opened at $63.21 on Monday. 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 52-week low of $50.73 and a 52-week high of $65.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.97 billion, a PE ratio of 14.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.63. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $60.99 and its 200-day moving average price is $59.91.

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

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm 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. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.51%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.34%.

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.