W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB is Dundas Partners LLP’s 2nd Largest Position

Dundas Partners LLP lifted its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,181,601 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 58,291 shares during the quarter. W.R. Berkley comprises about 6.4% of Dundas Partners LLP’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. Dundas Partners LLP’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $90,534,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WRB. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund lifted its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 8.9% in the 3rd quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 202,243 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $15,496,000 after buying an additional 16,450 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 4.9% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,241,509 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $401,607,000 after buying an additional 242,546 shares in the last quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S grew its position in W.R. Berkley by 133.5% during the third quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 31,520 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,415,000 after buying an additional 18,022 shares during the period. American Trust purchased a new position in W.R. Berkley in the second quarter valued at about $1,847,000. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC purchased a new position in W.R. Berkley in the third quarter valued at about $3,762,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on WRB. Barclays reissued an “underweight” rating and set a $64.00 price target (down from $73.00) on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Thursday, January 8th. Morgan Stanley set a $73.00 price target on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. UBS Group set a $71.00 price objective on W.R. Berkley in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on shares of W.R. Berkley from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $80.00 price target on W.R. Berkley and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $69.67.

W.R. Berkley Trading Up 0.5%

NYSE WRB opened at $69.93 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $26.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.71, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.35. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $69.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $72.22. The company has a current ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 52 week low of $60.68 and a 52 week high of $78.96.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings results 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). The firm had revenue of $3.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.18 billion. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.10% and a return on equity of 18.17%. W.R. Berkley’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.13 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W.R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.09 per share. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 23rd. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is 8.09%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, major shareholder Sumitomo Insurance Co L. Mitsui bought 370,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 26th. The stock was bought at an average price of $67.07 per share, with a total value of $24,815,900.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 54,959,504 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,686,133,933.28. This trade represents a 0.68% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Over the last ninety days, insiders have acquired 9,933,862 shares of company stock worth $688,134,108. 23.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.