ABN Amro Investment Solutions Grows Holdings in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

ABN Amro Investment Solutions boosted its holdings in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 248.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 12,573 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,968 shares during the period. ABN Amro Investment Solutions’ holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $882,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of WRB. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in W.R. Berkley in the 3rd quarter valued at $682,816,000. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in W.R. Berkley by 33.4% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,892,799 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $374,886,000 after purchasing an additional 1,224,363 shares during the last quarter. PFA Pension Forsikringsaktieselskab purchased a new stake in W.R. Berkley in the 4th quarter valued at $65,233,000. UBS Group AG raised its position in W.R. Berkley by 34.9% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 3,505,867 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $245,831,000 after purchasing an additional 906,100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in W.R. Berkley by 21.5% in the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,711,425 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $284,350,000 after purchasing an additional 657,558 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on WRB shares. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of W.R. Berkley from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Argus downgraded shares of W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of W.R. Berkley from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $64.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $66.00 to $64.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $68.81.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other W.R. Berkley news, major shareholder Sumitomo Insurance Co L. Mitsui acquired 112,176 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 3rd. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $72.20 per share, with a total value of $8,099,107.20. Following the purchase, the insider owned 58,780,450 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,243,948,490. The trade was a 0.19% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Over the last 90 days, insiders have bought 891,830 shares of company stock valued at $63,969,596. 23.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

W.R. Berkley Stock Performance

NYSE:WRB opened at $67.59 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $63.67 and a fifty-two week high of $78.96. The stock has a market cap of $25.16 billion, a PE ratio of 14.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.33. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $66.62 and its 200-day simple moving average is $69.50.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.13 by $0.17. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.64% and a return on equity of 18.92%. The business had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.18 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.01 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About W.R. Berkley

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.