Royce & Associates LP Lowers Stock Holdings in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Royce & Associates LP reduced its stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 14.4% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 182,740 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 30,842 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $12,814,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 4.9% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,241,509 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $401,607,000 after purchasing an additional 242,546 shares during the last quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S lifted its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 133.5% in the 3rd quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 31,520 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,415,000 after buying an additional 18,022 shares during the period. AlphaQuest LLC acquired a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $3,762,000. Stance Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 376.1% in the 3rd quarter. Stance Capital LLC now owns 48,119 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $3,687,000 after buying an additional 38,013 shares during the period. Finally, Eagle Rock Investment Company LLC lifted its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 30.9% in the 3rd quarter. Eagle Rock Investment Company LLC now owns 100,056 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $7,666,000 after buying an additional 23,605 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WRB has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald cut W.R. Berkley from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $75.00 to $71.00 in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Wall Street Zen raised W.R. Berkley from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, April 25th. Evercore reissued an “underperform” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Monday, March 9th. Weiss Ratings cut W.R. Berkley from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on W.R. Berkley from $74.00 to $66.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $68.81.

W.R. Berkley Stock Performance

NYSE WRB opened at $65.32 on Thursday. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $63.67 and a fifty-two week high of $78.96. The stock has a market cap of $24.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.33. The business has a fifty day moving average of $66.51 and a 200-day moving average of $69.34. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.13 by $0.17. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 18.92% and a net margin of 12.64%.The company had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.18 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.01 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at W.R. Berkley

In related news, major shareholder Sumitomo Insurance Co L. Mitsui purchased 147,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 27th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $71.63 per share, with a total value of $10,529,610.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider directly owned 58,522,274 shares in the company, valued at $4,191,950,486.62. The trade was a 0.25% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders acquired 405,176 shares of company stock valued at $29,275,037 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 23.30% of the company’s stock.

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.