CX Institutional Has $312,000 Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

CX Institutional raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 24.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,391 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 850 shares during the quarter. CX Institutional’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $312,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Optiver Holding B.V. grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 107.3% during the 4th quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 427 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 221 shares during the period. Whipplewood Advisors LLC bought a new stake in W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new position in W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter valued at $37,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter valued at $42,000. Finally, Colonial Trust Co SC lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 79.9% during the 4th quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC now owns 822 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $48,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on WRB. Wall Street Zen cut W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Barclays lifted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Truist Financial lifted their price target on W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on W. R. Berkley from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $70.64.

W. R. Berkley Stock Down 0.8%

Shares of WRB opened at $73.17 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.42. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1 year low of $51.41 and a 1 year high of $76.38. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $71.66 and its 200-day simple moving average is $64.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.07). W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. The company had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.01 billion. As a group, equities analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 23rd will be given a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 23rd. This is an increase from W. R. Berkley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is 7.42%.

W. R. Berkley Company Profile

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.