W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Shares Acquired by The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 15.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,787,361 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 632,578 shares during the quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $280,156,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of WRB. Norges Bank acquired a new position in W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at $272,582,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised 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 worth $417,897,000 after purchasing an additional 2,616,227 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 211.3% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $208,436,000 after purchasing an additional 2,493,758 shares during the period. Madison Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter worth approximately $98,446,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $89,691,000. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on WRB shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $67.64.

W. R. Berkley Stock Down 1.8 %

Shares of W. R. Berkley stock opened at $70.47 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $65.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $61.86. W. R. Berkley Co. has a fifty-two week low of $51.13 and a fifty-two week high of $76.38. The firm has a market cap of $26.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.40.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.07). W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. The business had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.01 billion. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 7.42%.

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.