Atria Investments Inc Sells 10,284 Shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Atria Investments Inc decreased its position in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 10.2% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 90,347 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 10,284 shares during the quarter. Atria Investments Inc’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $6,922,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in WRB. Compass Financial Services Inc purchased a new position in W.R. Berkley during the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Twin Peaks Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Elevation Point Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley during the second quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 40.2% during the third quarter. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 523 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 150 shares during the period. Finally, Westside Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 100.0% during the third quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 528 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 264 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on WRB. TD Cowen downgraded W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “sell” rating and cut their price target for the company from $77.00 to $55.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. BMO Capital Markets lowered W.R. Berkley from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $64.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Evercore set a $69.00 price target on shares of W.R. Berkley and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, Mizuho reduced their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $69.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $69.67.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other W.R. Berkley news, major shareholder Sumitomo Insurance Co L. Mitsui acquired 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 12th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $71.99 per share, with a total value of $1,439,800.00. Following the acquisition, the insider directly owned 56,576,652 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,072,953,177.48. The trade was a 0.04% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In the last ninety days, insiders have purchased 7,750,064 shares of company stock worth $532,603,787. Insiders own 23.30% of the company’s stock.

W.R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of WRB stock opened at $69.60 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $69.13 and a 200 day moving average of $72.11. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 1 year low of $59.55 and a 1 year high of $78.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.37.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 26th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.14 by ($0.01). W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.10% and a return on equity of 18.35%. The firm had revenue of $3.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.18 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.13 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 29th. Investors of record on Monday, December 15th were issued a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 15th. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is 8.09%.

W.R. Berkley Profile

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.