W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB Shares Sold by Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund

Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund cut its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 3.7% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 194,793 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 7,450 shares during the period. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $13,659,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. TruNorth Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 579.6% in the 4th quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 5,240 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $367,000 after buying an additional 4,469 shares during the period. Vise Technologies Inc. grew its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 26.6% in the fourth quarter. Vise Technologies Inc. now owns 13,885 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $974,000 after purchasing an additional 2,915 shares in the last quarter. Avalon Capital Management acquired a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $281,000. Cibc World Market Inc. grew its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 10.1% in the fourth quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 35,520 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,491,000 after purchasing an additional 3,256 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lido Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 53.3% in the fourth quarter. Lido Advisors LLC now owns 28,813 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,139,000 after purchasing an additional 10,020 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on WRB. Evercore restated an “underperform” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Monday, March 9th. Cantor Fitzgerald cut shares of W.R. Berkley from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $75.00 to $71.00 in a report on Thursday, April 9th. UBS Group set a $68.00 target price on W.R. Berkley and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on W.R. Berkley from $73.00 to $72.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded 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 issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, W.R. Berkley presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $68.81.

W.R. Berkley Trading Up 3.6%

Shares of W.R. Berkley stock opened at $68.70 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $66.41 and a 200-day simple moving average of $68.86. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 12-month low of $62.87 and a 12-month high of $78.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The stock has a market cap of $25.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.55, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.30.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.13 by $0.17. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.64% and a return on equity of 18.92%. The business had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.18 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.01 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The company 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 $0.10 dividend. 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 dividend yield of 0.6%. W.R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 7.63%.

W.R. Berkley 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.