W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB Shares Bought by Allstate Corp

Allstate Corp lifted its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 143.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 27,381 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 16,156 shares during the quarter. Allstate Corp’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $1,920,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Summitry LLC acquired a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley during the fourth quarter worth approximately $207,000. Clearstead Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 70.8% during the fourth quarter. Clearstead Advisors LLC now owns 1,491 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $105,000 after buying an additional 618 shares in the last quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 35.3% during the fourth quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 3,450 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $242,000 after buying an additional 901 shares in the last quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. grew its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 108.8% during the fourth quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 1,829 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $128,000 after buying an additional 953 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Prospera Financial Services Inc boosted its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 12.9% in the fourth quarter. Prospera Financial Services Inc now owns 24,850 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,743,000 after purchasing an additional 2,833 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on WRB shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $74.00 to $66.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 1st. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of W.R. Berkley from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $64.00 to $68.00 in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Brean Capital downgraded shares of W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $73.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, March 25th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Finally, Evercore reiterated an “underperform” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Monday, March 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, W.R. Berkley presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $68.81.

Insider Transactions at W.R. Berkley

In other news, major shareholder Sumitomo Insurance Co L. Mitsui bought 146,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 2nd. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $72.92 per share, with a total value of $10,646,320.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider directly owned 58,668,274 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,278,090,540.08. The trade was a 0.25% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 23.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

W.R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $64.41 on Friday. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $63.67 and a fifty-two week high of $78.96. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $66.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $69.27. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The stock has a market cap of $23.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.65, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.33.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 previous year, the business earned $1.01 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 1.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.67 EPS for the current year.

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.