Dakota Wealth Management Acquires 13,041 Shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Dakota Wealth Management raised its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 17.1% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 89,375 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 13,041 shares during the quarter. Dakota Wealth Management’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $6,848,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in W.R. Berkley during the 2nd quarter valued at $367,921,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. grew its position in W.R. Berkley by 6,503.1% in the 2nd quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,561,230 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $188,174,000 after purchasing an additional 2,601,230 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,961,788 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,715,583,000 after purchasing an additional 625,685 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 8.6% during the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,274,234 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $534,438,000 after buying an additional 577,873 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP bought a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley in the second quarter valued at about $29,617,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $75.00 price target (down from $76.00) on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on W.R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 6th. UBS Group set a $71.00 target price on W.R. Berkley in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $68.00 to $66.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $73.00 price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, W.R. Berkley presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $69.67.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder Sumitomo Insurance Co L. Mitsui acquired 370,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 26th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $67.07 per share, with a total value of $24,815,900.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider owned 54,959,504 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,686,133,933.28. This represents a 0.68% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders have bought 8,822,032 shares of company stock valued at $608,511,512 in the last quarter. 23.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

W.R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of WRB stock opened at $71.63 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $69.49 and its 200 day simple moving average is $72.20. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a one year low of $60.68 and a one year high of $78.96. The firm has a market cap of $27.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.10, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.37.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 26th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $3.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.18 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.13 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W.R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Investors of record on Monday, February 23rd will be issued a dividend of $0.09 per share. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 23rd. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.09%.

W.R. Berkley Company 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.