Aviva PLC Has $22.03 Million Stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Aviva PLC lessened its position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB – Get Rating) by 6.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 130,967 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 8,329 shares during the quarter. Aviva PLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $22,029,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Inspire Investing LLC acquired a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $293,000. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 82.5% in the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 563,885 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $36,416,000 after buying an additional 254,850 shares in the last quarter. Prudential PLC boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 7.8% in the 3rd quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 6,744 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $436,000 after buying an additional 490 shares in the last quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 18.8% in the fourth quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 47,213 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,426,000 after purchasing an additional 7,468 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AXA S.A. boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 1.0% in the third quarter. AXA S.A. now owns 299,935 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $19,370,000 after purchasing an additional 2,969 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.66% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on WRB shares. Bank of America boosted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $80.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 21st. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $75.00 to $69.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 10th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $79.00 to $77.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $84.00 to $80.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 18th. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $77.64.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 1.2 %

NYSE WRB opened at $56.10 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $60.28 and a 200 day simple moving average of $67.04. The company has a market capitalization of $14.63 billion, a PE ratio of 14.42, a P/E/G ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a current ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12 month low of $55.67 and a 12 month high of $76.99.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 20th. The insurance provider reported $1.00 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19 by ($0.19). The company had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.53 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 9.73% and a return on equity of 17.98%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.10 EPS. Research analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.57 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Company Profile

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W.R. Berkley Corp. is an insurance holding company, which engages in the property casualty insurance business. It operates through the following segments: Insurance and Reinsurance & Monoline Excess. The Insurance segment includes excess and surplus lines, admitted lines, and specialty personal lines throughout the United States, as well as insurance businesses in the United Kingdom, Continental Europe, South America, Canada, Mexico, Scandinavia, Asia, and Australia.