W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB Stock Holdings Trimmed by Optimum Investment Advisors

Optimum Investment Advisors lowered its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 69.4% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 662 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 1,500 shares during the period. Optimum Investment Advisors’ holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $49,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of WRB. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 21.8% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,022,039 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $357,368,000 after buying an additional 900,071 shares in the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP raised its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 4,198.9% in the 1st quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 777,201 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $55,306,000 after buying an additional 759,122 shares in the last quarter. Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 7,314.0% in the 1st quarter. Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC now owns 744,516 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $52,980,000 after buying an additional 734,474 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley in the 1st quarter worth $44,210,000. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 60.1% in the 1st quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 826,616 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $58,822,000 after buying an additional 310,313 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W.R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $75.01 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.76, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.42. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $74.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $72.19. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 52-week low of $55.97 and a 52-week high of $78.48.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 20th. The insurance provider reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.03. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 19.35% and a net margin of 13.01%.The business had revenue of $3.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.16 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.93 earnings per share. W.R. Berkley’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W.R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 22nd. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. W.R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 7.56%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on WRB shares. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on W.R. Berkley from $76.00 to $75.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. UBS Group set a $87.00 price objective on W.R. Berkley and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Barclays restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $73.00 target price on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Friday. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $74.77.

W.R. Berkley Company 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.