Fifth Third Bancorp Lowers Holdings in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Fifth Third Bancorp decreased its holdings in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 8,506 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 451 shares during the quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $625,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Spectrum Wealth Counsel LLC purchased a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley in the first quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Garde Capital Inc. purchased a new position in W.R. Berkley in the first quarter worth approximately $30,000. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in W.R. Berkley in the first quarter worth approximately $36,000. Keystone Global Partners LLC purchased a new position in W.R. Berkley in the first quarter worth approximately $41,000. Finally, MAI Capital Management lifted its stake in W.R. Berkley by 191.1% in the first quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 847 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $60,000 after acquiring an additional 556 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WRB has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $71.00 to $68.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. TD Cowen downgraded shares of W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $78.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $62.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 7th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Monday, September 15th. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $72.54.

W.R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of W.R. Berkley stock opened at $75.96 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $71.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $70.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.30, a PEG ratio of 2.62 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 has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.37.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.10 billion. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.32% and a return on equity of 18.83%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.04 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast 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 $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 payout ratio 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.