W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB Shares Bought by New York Life Investment Management LLC

New York Life Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 1.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 40,755 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 603 shares during the period. New York Life Investment Management LLC’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $2,994,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WRB. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in W.R. Berkley by 21.8% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,022,039 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $357,368,000 after purchasing an additional 900,071 shares during the period. Woodline Partners LP lifted its position in W.R. Berkley by 4,198.9% during the first quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 777,201 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $55,306,000 after purchasing an additional 759,122 shares during the period. Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC lifted its position in W.R. Berkley by 7,314.0% during the first quarter. Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC now owns 744,516 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $52,980,000 after purchasing an additional 734,474 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in W.R. Berkley in the first quarter valued at $44,210,000. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 60.1% in the first quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 826,616 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $58,822,000 after buying an additional 310,313 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WRB has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets cut shares of W.R. Berkley from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $64.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Truist Financial set a $84.00 price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Wolfe Research started coverage on W.R. Berkley in a report on Monday, September 15th. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald set a $78.00 price objective on W.R. Berkley in a report on Monday. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $74.46.

W.R. Berkley Stock Up 0.2%

WRB stock opened at $71.52 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.02, a P/E/G ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.42. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $74.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $72.30. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 52 week low of $55.97 and a 52 week high of $78.48.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 20th. The insurance provider reported $1.10 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $3.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.16 billion. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 13.01% and a return on equity of 19.35%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.93 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W.R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.09 per share. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 22nd. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.56%.

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.