Montag A & Associates Inc. Sells 5,163 Shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Montag A & Associates Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 5.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 82,542 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 5,163 shares during the period. Montag A & Associates Inc.’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $6,064,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vise Technologies Inc. purchased a new stake in W.R. Berkley during the 2nd quarter valued at $772,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund boosted its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 303.8% in the 2nd quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 137,678 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $10,115,000 after buying an additional 103,579 shares during the last quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 8.7% in the second quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 4,930 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $348,000 after acquiring an additional 393 shares during the period. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in W.R. Berkley during the second quarter valued at $221,000. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in W.R. Berkley by 9.1% during the second quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 581,807 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $42,745,000 after acquiring an additional 48,617 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on WRB shares. Barclays reissued an “underweight” rating and issued a $73.00 target price on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $87.00 price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Friday. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Monday, September 15th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $76.00 to $75.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $74.46.

W.R. Berkley Price Performance

NYSE WRB opened at $75.71 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 12 month low of $55.97 and a 12 month high of $78.48. The stock has a market cap of $28.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.91, a PEG ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.40. The company’s 50 day moving average is $74.42 and its two-hundred day moving average is $72.55.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 20th. The insurance provider reported $1.10 earnings per share 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 analyst estimates 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 revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.93 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that W.R. Berkley Corporation 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 was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 22nd. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.56%.

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.