W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB Stock Sold by ProShare Advisors LLC

ProShare Advisors LLC reduced its stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 23.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 47,632 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 14,351 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $3,217,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Squarepoint Ops LLC increased its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 1,300.5% during the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 751,280 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $52,988,000 after purchasing an additional 697,638 shares during the period. National Pension Service boosted its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 81.4% during the 2nd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 51,537 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $3,635,000 after purchasing an additional 23,122 shares in the last quarter. Nykredit A S bought a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $5,526,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new stake in W.R. Berkley during the second quarter worth approximately $4,562,000. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in W.R. Berkley by 129.2% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 25,841 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,713,000 after buying an additional 14,568 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WRB has been the subject of several research reports. Mizuho raised their price objective on W.R. Berkley from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 20th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $79.00 target price on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Monday, October 26th. Bank of America lowered shares of W.R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price target for the company from $74.00 to $68.00 in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Finally, Evercore reissued an “underperform” rating and set a $68.00 target price on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and six have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, W.R. Berkley presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $70.56.

W.R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WRB opened at $76.99 on Friday. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 1 year low of $62.87 and a 1 year high of $79.26. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $71.05 and a 200 day simple moving average of $69.40. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The firm has a market cap of $28.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.28, a P/E/G ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 0.23.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 19th. The insurance provider reported $1.17 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.15 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $3.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.82 billion. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 19.70% and a net margin of 12.53%. The firm’s revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.10 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W.R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 21st were paid a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 21st. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.46%.

About W.R. Berkley

W.R. Berkley Corporation is an insurance holding company that operates through a group of specialized insurance businesses. The company primarily provides commercial property and casualty insurance, serving businesses, organizations and other commercial customers with coverage tailored to specific industries and risks.

Its products and services include workers’ compensation, commercial automobile, property, general liability, professional liability, directors and officers liability, excess and surplus lines, and other specialty insurance products.