E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB Invests $754,000 in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB bought a new position in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 10,747 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $754,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund raised its stake in W.R. Berkley by 8.9% during the third quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 202,243 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $15,496,000 after purchasing an additional 16,450 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 4.9% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,241,509 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $401,607,000 after buying an additional 242,546 shares during the last quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S raised its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 133.5% during the 3rd quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 31,520 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,415,000 after buying an additional 18,022 shares in the last quarter. American Trust bought a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,847,000. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC bought a new stake in W.R. Berkley during the third quarter worth approximately $3,762,000. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Argus dropped their target price on W.R. Berkley from $82.00 to $76.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Barclays restated an “underweight” rating and set a $64.00 price target (down from $73.00) on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Thursday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $73.00 price target on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, Bank of America reduced their target price on shares of W.R. Berkley from $69.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $69.88.

Insider Activity at W.R. Berkley

In related news, major shareholder Sumitomo Insurance Co L. Mitsui purchased 370,000 shares of W.R. Berkley stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 26th. The shares were bought at an average price of $67.07 per share, with a total value of $24,815,900.00. Following the purchase, the insider directly owned 54,959,504 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,686,133,933.28. This represents a 0.68% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders have bought 8,868,939 shares of company stock valued at $613,578,412 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 23.30% of the company’s stock.

W.R. Berkley Trading Down 0.8%

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $64.50 on Thursday. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $62.63 and a fifty-two week high of $78.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a current ratio of 0.37. The company has a market cap of $24.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.50, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.35. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $69.06 and its 200-day moving average price is $71.79.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 26th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.14 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $3.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.18 billion. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.10% and a return on equity of 18.17%. W.R. Berkley’s revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.13 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.09 per share. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 23rd. W.R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 8.09%.

About W.R. Berkley

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.