Intech Investment Management LLC Trims Stock Holdings in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Intech Investment Management LLC trimmed its position in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 37.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 79,036 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 47,970 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $5,542,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WRB. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in W.R. Berkley in the third quarter worth $682,816,000. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 33.4% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,892,799 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $374,886,000 after acquiring an additional 1,224,363 shares in the last quarter. PFA Pension Forsikringsaktieselskab bought a new stake in W.R. Berkley in the fourth quarter worth $65,233,000. UBS Group AG boosted its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 34.9% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 3,505,867 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $245,831,000 after acquiring an additional 906,100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 21.5% in the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,711,425 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $284,350,000 after acquiring an additional 657,558 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WRB has been the topic of several analyst reports. Weiss Ratings downgraded W.R. Berkley from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Evercore reissued an “underperform” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Monday, March 9th. UBS Group set a $68.00 target price on W.R. Berkley and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Bank of America dropped their target price on W.R. Berkley from $68.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised W.R. Berkley from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $64.00 to $68.00 in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $68.81.

W.R. Berkley Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of NYSE:WRB opened at $63.48 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $23.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.45, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 1 year low of $63.35 and a 1 year high of $78.96. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $66.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $69.18.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.13 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.18 billion. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 18.92% and a net margin of 12.64%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.01 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other W.R. Berkley news, major shareholder Sumitomo Insurance Co L. Mitsui purchased 112,176 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the acquisition, the insider directly owned 58,780,450 shares in the company, valued at $4,243,948,490. This trade represents a 0.19% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 23.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.