Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Boosts Holdings in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund raised its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 17.8% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 250,676 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 37,876 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $17,577,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of WRB. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 75.6% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 50,503 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,955,000 after buying an additional 21,737 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 9.7% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 33,990 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,419,000 after buying an additional 3,013 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 399.0% in the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 9,506 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $675,000 after buying an additional 7,601 shares in the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC lifted its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 691.9% in the second quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC now owns 586 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 12.0% in the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 9,825 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $722,000 after buying an additional 1,056 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

W.R. Berkley News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting W.R. Berkley this week:

• Negative Sentiment: W.R. Berkley announced the passing of founder and Executive Chairman William R. Berkley, followed by a leadership transition update. While the company said it is moving forward with succession planning, the founder’s death may create some near-term uncertainty for investors. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: The company named Kirk A. Parker as president of Berkley North Pacific, signaling continued management action and a focus on operational execution and profitable growth. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst commentary remains constructive overall, with Zacks-related updates highlighting W.R. Berkley as a top momentum stock and raising some forward EPS estimates, which can support the bullish case for the insurance company. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Several analyst estimate revisions were mixed but modest, with small increases for some future periods and a slight reduction for FY2027, suggesting expectations are still generally stable rather than materially changing. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Separate coverage noted that W.R. Berkley raised its dividend by more than 11% and continues returning excess capital through dividends and buybacks, reinforcing shareholder-friendly capital allocation. Article Title

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $74.00 to $66.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 1st. Wall Street Zen raised shares of W.R. Berkley from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 25th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $80.00 to $78.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of W.R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $71.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, W.R. Berkley has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $68.44.

W.R. Berkley Stock Performance

W.R. Berkley stock opened at $68.16 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $66.52 and a 200-day simple moving average of $68.60. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 1-year low of $62.87 and a 1-year high of $78.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. The stock has a market cap of $25.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.30.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.13 by $0.17. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.64% and a return on equity of 18.92%. The business had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.18 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.01 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.67 EPS for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 23rd will be paid a $0.10 dividend. This is a positive change from W.R. Berkley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 23rd. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.47%.

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.