National Pension Service Cuts Stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

National Pension Service trimmed its position in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 79.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 125,241 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 475,281 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $8,782,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of WRB. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in W.R. Berkley during the 3rd quarter valued at about $682,816,000. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in W.R. Berkley by 33.4% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,892,799 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $374,886,000 after purchasing an additional 1,224,363 shares during the last quarter. PFA Pension Forsikringsaktieselskab purchased a new stake in W.R. Berkley during the 4th quarter valued at about $65,233,000. UBS Group AG grew its position in W.R. Berkley by 34.9% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 3,505,867 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $245,831,000 after purchasing an additional 906,100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in W.R. Berkley by 21.5% during the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,711,425 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $284,350,000 after purchasing an additional 657,558 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

W.R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $63.48 on Monday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $66.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $69.18. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The company has a market cap of $23.63 billion, a PE ratio of 13.45, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.30. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 52-week low of $63.35 and a 52-week high of $78.96.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.18 billion. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.64% and a return on equity of 18.92%. The firm’s revenue was up 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.01 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.67 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WRB has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group set a $68.00 price target on shares of W.R. Berkley and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of W.R. Berkley from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, April 25th. Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $68.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Cantor Fitzgerald downgraded shares of W.R. Berkley from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $75.00 to $71.00 in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of W.R. Berkley from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $68.81.

Insider Activity

In other W.R. Berkley news, major shareholder Sumitomo Insurance Co L. Mitsui acquired 112,176 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 3rd. The shares were bought at an average price of $72.20 per share, with a total value of $8,099,107.20. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider owned 58,780,450 shares in the company, valued at $4,243,948,490. This represents a 0.19% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 23.00% of the company’s stock.

About W.R. Berkley

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.