W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Shares Sold by BloombergSen Inc.

BloombergSen Inc. lowered its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 29.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,077,336 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 446,773 shares during the quarter. W. R. Berkley comprises approximately 4.6% of BloombergSen Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest holding. BloombergSen Inc. owned about 0.41% of W. R. Berkley worth $67,075,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. BlueCrest Capital Management Ltd acquired a new position in W. R. Berkley during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $2,881,000. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC purchased a new position in W. R. Berkley in the 1st quarter worth $11,665,000. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 179.8% during the 1st quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC now owns 532,506 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $33,154,000 after acquiring an additional 342,222 shares during the period. Lido Advisors LLC boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 28.0% in the first quarter. Lido Advisors LLC now owns 36,120 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,249,000 after buying an additional 7,899 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Synergy Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 20.1% in the 1st quarter. Synergy Asset Management LLC now owns 51,879 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,230,000 after buying an additional 8,674 shares during the period. 66.34% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on WRB. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $76.00 to $75.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 21st. StockNews.com initiated coverage on W. R. Berkley in a report on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $78.00.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 0.5 %

W. R. Berkley stock opened at $62.22 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.40 and a quick ratio of 0.40. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.02 billion, a PE ratio of 13.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 0.63. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $61.47 and a 200-day simple moving average of $60.66. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12 month low of $55.50 and a 12 month high of $76.99.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 20th. The insurance provider reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.07. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 10.85% and a return on equity of 17.65%. The company had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.12 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 26th were paid a dividend of $0.11 per share. This is a positive change from W. R. Berkley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 9.67%.

W. R. Berkley Company Profile

W. R. Berkley Corporation, an insurance holding company, operates as a commercial lines writer in the United States and internationally. It operates in two segments, Insurance and Reinsurance & Monoline Excess. The Insurance segment underwrites commercial insurance business, including premises operations, commercial automobile, property, products liability, and general and professional liability lines.