Vanguard Group Inc. Increases Holdings in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 0.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 37,033,581 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 309,828 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 0.10% of W.R. Berkley worth $2,596,795,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Mattern Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. Mattern Capital Management LLC now owns 106,859 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $7,493,000 after purchasing an additional 5,258 shares during the last quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 392.8% in the fourth quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 14,754 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,035,000 after purchasing an additional 11,760 shares during the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,722 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $822,000 after purchasing an additional 167 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp increased its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 182.1% in the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 41,179 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,887,000 after purchasing an additional 26,582 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. increased its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 18.9% in the fourth quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 3,025 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $212,000 after purchasing an additional 480 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, major shareholder Sumitomo Insurance Co L. Mitsui acquired 112,176 shares of W.R. Berkley stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 3rd. The shares were bought at an average cost of $72.20 per share, with a total value of $8,099,107.20. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider directly owned 58,780,450 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,243,948,490. The trade was a 0.19% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders purchased 3,122,015 shares of company stock worth $219,761,133 over the last quarter. Insiders own 23.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on WRB shares. UBS Group set a $68.00 target price on W.R. Berkley and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on W.R. Berkley from $74.00 to $66.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $73.00 target price on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, January 7th. Bank of America reduced their target price on W.R. Berkley from $68.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on W.R. Berkley from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, W.R. Berkley has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $68.81.

W.R. Berkley Trading Up 1.3%

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $67.05 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $67.81 and its two-hundred day moving average is $70.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.37. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 1-year low of $63.67 and a 1-year high of $78.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.21, a PEG ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.37.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.13 by $0.17. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 18.99% and a net margin of 12.64%.The company had revenue of $3.69 billion for 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.6 EPS for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.09 per share. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 23rd. W.R. Berkley’s payout ratio is presently 7.63%.

About W.R. Berkley

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.