W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB Shares Acquired by Parallel Advisors LLC

Parallel Advisors LLC increased its position in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,616 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 161 shares during the quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $266,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of WRB. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec lifted its stake in W.R. Berkley by 70.8% in the 1st quarter. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec now owns 17,197 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,224,000 after acquiring an additional 7,131 shares in the last quarter. Sciencast Management LP acquired a new stake in W.R. Berkley in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $3,493,000. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 75.6% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 50,503 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,955,000 after buying an additional 21,737 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 2,539,691 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $180,724,000 after purchasing an additional 52,594 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bayforest Capital Ltd lifted its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 2,129.9% during the 1st quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 18,196 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,295,000 after buying an additional 17,380 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on WRB shares. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on 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. UBS Group upped their price objective on W.R. Berkley from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Barclays upped their price objective on W.R. Berkley from $62.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised W.R. Berkley to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Finally, TD Cowen downgraded W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $78.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Friday, June 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $72.54.

W.R. Berkley Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of NYSE:WRB opened at $73.43 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $70.79 and its 200-day moving average price is $70.35. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 12-month low of $55.80 and a 12-month high of $76.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a current ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.05 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.03 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $3.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 18.83% and a net margin of 12.32%.During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.04 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

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

W.R. Berkley Profile

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.