Swiss National Bank Sells 106,500 Shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Swiss National Bank trimmed its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 12.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 724,962 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 106,500 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank owned approximately 0.19% of W.R. Berkley worth $48,050,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 75.6% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 50,503 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,955,000 after buying an additional 21,737 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 9.7% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 33,990 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,419,000 after acquiring an additional 3,013 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its position in W.R. Berkley by 399.0% during the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 9,506 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $675,000 after acquiring an additional 7,601 shares during the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC increased its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 691.9% in the 2nd quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC now owns 586 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 12.0% in the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 9,825 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $722,000 after purchasing an additional 1,056 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on WRB shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised W.R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $71.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, June 8th. Argus lowered shares of W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of W.R. Berkley from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $64.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Evercore reissued an “underperform” rating and set a $68.00 target price on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Friday, July 10th. Finally, Bank of America restated an “underperform” rating and issued a $68.00 price target (down from $74.00) on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and six have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, W.R. Berkley currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $70.44.

W.R. Berkley Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of WRB stock opened at $72.41 on Thursday. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 1-year low of $62.87 and a 1-year 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 $26.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.87, a PEG ratio of 3.42 and a beta of 0.29. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $68.86 and a 200-day moving average of $68.37.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 20th. The insurance provider reported $1.27 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $3.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.28 billion. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 19.49% and a net margin of 12.94%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.05 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.66 earnings per share for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 23rd were paid a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 23rd. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. This is an increase from W.R. Berkley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. W.R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 8.21%.

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.