Atria Investments Inc Reduces Stock Position in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Atria Investments Inc lowered its position in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 10.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 90,347 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 10,284 shares during the period. Atria Investments Inc’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $6,922,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WRB. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 40.2% in the third quarter. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 523 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 4,788 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $367,000 after buying an additional 151 shares during the period. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC increased its stake in W.R. Berkley by 4.4% in the 2nd quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC now owns 3,721 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $273,000 after buying an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management raised its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 2.1% during the second quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 8,391 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $617,000 after acquiring an additional 173 shares during the period. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 9.4% in the third quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 2,021 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $155,000 after acquiring an additional 174 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, major shareholder Sumitomo Insurance Co L. Mitsui acquired 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 12th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $71.99 per share, with a total value of $1,439,800.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 56,576,652 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,072,953,177.48. This represents a 0.04% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In the last three months, insiders have bought 7,750,064 shares of company stock worth $532,603,787. Company insiders own 23.30% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on WRB. Truist Financial set a $80.00 target price on W.R. Berkley and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $73.00 price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, January 7th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $69.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $73.00 price target on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, W.R. Berkley currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $69.67.

W.R. Berkley Stock Down 2.9%

Shares of WRB opened at $69.60 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The business has a fifty day moving average of $69.13 and a 200 day moving average of $72.11. The company has a market cap of $26.45 billion, a PE ratio of 15.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.37. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 52-week low of $59.55 and a 52-week high of $78.96.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its earnings results on Monday, January 26th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.14 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $3.18 billion during 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 18.35%. The company’s revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.13 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 15th were paid a $0.09 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 15th. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.