Wallington Asset Management LLC Decreases Stock Position in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Wallington Asset Management LLC reduced its position in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 3.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 308,444 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 9,421 shares during the period. W.R. Berkley comprises approximately 2.7% of Wallington Asset Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest position. Wallington Asset Management LLC owned approximately 0.08% of W.R. Berkley worth $20,444,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of WRB. Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in W.R. Berkley in the 4th quarter valued at about $3,542,919,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 37,033,581 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,596,795,000 after purchasing an additional 309,828 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 14,921,114 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,143,256,000 after purchasing an additional 149,605 shares during the last quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley in the third quarter valued at approximately $682,816,000. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley during the fourth quarter worth approximately $435,752,000. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on WRB. UBS Group set a $68.00 price objective on W.R. Berkley and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on W.R. Berkley from $74.00 to $66.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 1st. Weiss Ratings downgraded W.R. Berkley from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Barclays reissued an “underweight” rating and issued a $62.00 price objective (down from $64.00) on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Friday, June 12th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of W.R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $71.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Monday, June 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, W.R. Berkley has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $68.31.

W.R. Berkley Stock Performance

W.R. Berkley stock opened at $71.32 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $67.04 and a 200 day moving average price of $68.12. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 52 week low of $62.87 and a 52 week high of $78.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.11, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.30. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.13 by $0.17. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 18.92% and a net margin of 12.64%.The firm had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.18 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.01 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.67 earnings per share for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 23rd will be given a dividend of $0.10 per share. This is a boost from W.R. Berkley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 23rd. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.47%.

W.R. Berkley Company Profile

W. R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE: WRB) is a publicly traded insurance holding company that underwrites and sells commercial property and casualty insurance, specialty insurance products, and reinsurance. Headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, the company operates a portfolio of underwriting businesses that focus on niche and specialty commercial risks, offering coverage tailored to industries such as transportation, construction, professional services and other commercial lines.

The company’s product mix includes primary and excess casualty, property, professional liability, environmental and other specialty lines, together with treaty and facultative reinsurance solutions.