Bank of New York Mellon Corp Sells 167,916 Shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Bank of New York Mellon Corp reduced its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 7.6% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,033,932 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 167,916 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $134,809,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley in the 4th quarter valued at about $3,542,919,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 37,033,581 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,596,795,000 after acquiring an additional 309,828 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 1.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 14,921,114 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,143,256,000 after acquiring an additional 149,605 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in W.R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $435,752,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,913,337 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $344,523,000 after acquiring an additional 20,538 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

W.R. Berkley Trading Up 0.3%

NYSE WRB opened at $71.79 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.21, a P/E/G ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 0.29. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $68.48 and a 200 day simple moving average of $68.32. 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 one year low of $62.87 and a one year high of $78.96.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.13 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 revenue for the quarter was up 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.01 EPS. Research analysts expect that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.66 earnings per share for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 23rd were given a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 23rd. This is a boost from W.R. Berkley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.47%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WRB has been the subject of several analyst reports. Truist Financial lowered their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $80.00 to $78.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. UBS Group set a $68.00 price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Argus cut shares of W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $74.00 target price (up from $70.00) on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, Evercore restated an “underperform” rating and issued a $68.00 target price on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Friday, July 10th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and six have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $70.00.

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.