Ritholtz Wealth Management Has $585,000 Stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB)

Ritholtz Wealth Management increased its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 7.5% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 8,218 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 574 shares during the period. Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $585,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in WRB. Norges Bank bought a new position in W.R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at $272,582,000. Madison Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in W.R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at $98,446,000. Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in W.R. Berkley by 121.1% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,949,573 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $172,609,000 after purchasing an additional 1,615,565 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in W.R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at $89,691,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in W.R. Berkley by 8,709.4% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 671,893 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $47,812,000 after purchasing an additional 664,266 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on WRB. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of W.R. Berkley from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of W.R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of W.R. Berkley from $63.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th. Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $74.00 price objective (up previously from $73.00) on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of 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 analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, W.R. Berkley presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $70.64.

W.R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of W.R. Berkley stock opened at $72.70 on Thursday. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a twelve month low of $51.41 and a twelve month high of $76.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $72.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $65.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.42.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $3.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.01 billion. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.43% and a return on equity of 19.66%. Analysts forecast that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 23rd will be given a $0.09 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 23rd. This is a boost from W.R. Berkley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. W.R. Berkley’s payout ratio is presently 7.42%.

About W.R. Berkley

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.