Wealth Quarterback LLC Sells 3,888 Shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Wealth Quarterback LLC lessened its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 38.7% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 6,171 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 3,888 shares during the period. Wealth Quarterback LLC’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $453,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Woodline Partners LP lifted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 759,122 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley in the first quarter valued at approximately $44,210,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 60.1% during 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 during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in W.R. Berkley by 18.5% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,542,249 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $109,746,000 after buying an additional 240,557 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aviva PLC grew its stake in W.R. Berkley by 1,997.6% in the 2nd quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 234,234 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $17,209,000 after buying an additional 223,067 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

W.R. Berkley Stock Up 0.7%

NYSE WRB opened at $76.34 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $74.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is $72.60. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a one year low of $55.97 and a one year high of $78.48. The firm has a market cap of $29.01 billion, a PE ratio of 16.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.37.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 20th. The insurance provider reported $1.10 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.03. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 13.01% and a return on equity of 19.35%. The firm had revenue of $3.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.16 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.93 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. 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 Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 22nd were given a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 22nd. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.56%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have issued reports on WRB shares. BMO Capital Markets lowered W.R. Berkley from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $64.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Barclays reissued an “underweight” rating and issued a $73.00 price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Cantor Fitzgerald set a $78.00 target price on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Monday, October 27th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $87.00 target price on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $84.00 price target on shares of W.R. Berkley and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $74.46.

About W.R. Berkley

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.