Dakota Wealth Management Acquires 9,375 Shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Dakota Wealth Management boosted its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 10.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 98,750 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,375 shares during the quarter. Dakota Wealth Management’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $6,924,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WRB. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley in the third quarter worth about $682,816,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley during the second quarter valued at approximately $367,921,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 6,503.1% in the second quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,561,230 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $188,174,000 after purchasing an additional 2,601,230 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 33.4% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,892,799 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $374,886,000 after purchasing an additional 1,224,363 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in W.R. Berkley by 21.5% in the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,711,425 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $284,350,000 after purchasing an additional 657,558 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at W.R. Berkley

In other news, major shareholder Sumitomo Insurance Co L. Mitsui bought 370,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 26th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $67.07 per share, with a total value of $24,815,900.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider owned 54,959,504 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,686,133,933.28. This trade represents a 0.68% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders have purchased a total of 8,648,939 shares of company stock worth $598,055,212 in the last ninety days. 23.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WRB has been the topic of several research reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Mizuho lowered their target price on W.R. Berkley from $69.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Barclays reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $64.00 price target (down from $73.00) on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Thursday, January 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on W.R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 6th. Finally, TD Cowen lowered W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “sell” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $77.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $69.88.

W.R. Berkley Trading Down 0.9%

NYSE:WRB opened at $64.69 on Friday. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 1-year low of $62.63 and a 1-year high of $78.96. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $68.93 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $71.69. The company has a current ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.54, a PEG ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 0.35.

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

W.R. Berkley Announces Dividend

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

W.R. Berkley Profile

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.