Summit Global Investments Acquires 849 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Summit Global Investments lifted its holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 0.8% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 110,251 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 849 shares during the quarter. Summit Global Investments’ holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $7,797,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 11.5% during the third quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 71,616 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $4,547,000 after acquiring an additional 7,378 shares in the last quarter. Xponance Inc. raised its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 2.1% during the third quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 27,577 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,751,000 after acquiring an additional 560 shares in the last quarter. Tectonic Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the third quarter valued at approximately $313,000. Raymond James & Associates raised its stake in W. R. Berkley by 9.2% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 769,023 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $48,825,000 after buying an additional 64,994 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. raised its stake in W. R. Berkley by 6.5% in the third quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 54,917 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,487,000 after buying an additional 3,345 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of WRB traded up $1.12 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $78.90. 906,468 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,264,927. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1-year low of $55.50 and a 1-year high of $89.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a current ratio of 0.37. The company has a 50 day moving average of $83.94 and a 200-day moving average of $76.69. The stock has a market cap of $20.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 0.60.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The insurance provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.10. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.23% and a return on equity of 21.01%. The firm had revenue of $2.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.00 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 4th were paid a $0.11 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 1st. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.56%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.80%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on WRB shares. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $81.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $99.00 to $94.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Truist Financial cut their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $95.00 to $93.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $83.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of W. R. Berkley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $90.63.

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.