Strs Ohio Takes Position in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Strs Ohio purchased a new stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 33,531 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,386,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Spectrum Wealth Counsel LLC acquired a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley in the 1st quarter valued at $29,000. Garde Capital Inc. bought a new stake in W.R. Berkley in the 1st quarter valued at $30,000. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in W.R. Berkley in the 1st quarter valued at $36,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new stake in W.R. Berkley in the 4th quarter valued at $37,000. Finally, Keystone Global Partners LLC acquired a new stake in W.R. Berkley in the 1st quarter valued at $41,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on WRB. TD Cowen lowered shares of W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $78.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised W.R. Berkley to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut W.R. Berkley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $74.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of W.R. Berkley from $71.00 to $68.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $72.54.

W.R. Berkley Stock Down 1.4%

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $72.80 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $27.61 billion, a PE ratio of 16.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 0.41. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 12-month low of $55.80 and a 12-month high of $76.38. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $70.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $70.06. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.03 by $0.02. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.32% and a return on equity of 18.83%. The firm had revenue of $3.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.04 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W.R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 22nd will be paid a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 22nd. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.20%.

About W.R. Berkley

W. R. Berkley Corporation, an insurance holding company, operates as a commercial lines writers worldwide. It operates in two segments, Insurance and Reinsurance & Monoline Excess. The Insurance segment underwrites commercial insurance business, including excess and surplus lines, admitted lines, and specialty personal lines.