W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB Shares Acquired by Dimensional Fund Advisors LP

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 3.6% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,768,180 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 129,801 shares during the quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $249,757,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of WRB. Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in W.R. Berkley during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,542,919,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley in the fourth quarter worth $435,752,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 35,572.5% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,219,902 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $155,660,000 after acquiring an additional 2,213,679 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 1,224,363 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 70.7% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,754,383 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $193,137,000 after acquiring an additional 1,140,349 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on WRB shares. Argus cut shares of W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Bank of America reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and set a $68.00 target price (down from $74.00) on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of W.R. Berkley from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and set a $74.00 price objective (up from $70.00) on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, Mizuho increased their target price on shares of W.R. Berkley from $72.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and six have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $70.44.

W.R. Berkley Stock Performance

WRB opened at $73.41 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $69.01 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $68.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. The company has a market capitalization of $27.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.29. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 1-year low of $62.87 and a 1-year high of $78.96.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 20th. The insurance provider reported $1.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.08 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $3.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.28 billion. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 19.49% and a net margin of 12.94%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.05 EPS. Research analysts predict that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 23rd were given a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. This is a positive change from W.R. Berkley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 23rd. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.21%.

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.