W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Shares Sold by CHB Investment Group LLC

CHB Investment Group LLC cut its stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 0.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 50,385 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 386 shares during the period. W. R. Berkley accounts for 1.6% of CHB Investment Group LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest position. CHB Investment Group LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $2,949,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in WRB. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 48.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $857,814,000 after acquiring an additional 4,947,830 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 51.0% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 11,321,958 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $642,294,000 after buying an additional 3,825,238 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 55.1% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $417,897,000 after purchasing an additional 2,616,227 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 211.3% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $208,436,000 after buying an additional 2,493,758 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in W. R. Berkley by 47.9% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,591,353 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $429,266,000 after purchasing an additional 2,459,073 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on WRB shares. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $56.00 to $50.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley started coverage on W. R. Berkley in a report on Thursday, December 5th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $65.00 price objective for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.82.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:WRB opened at $57.24 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12 month low of $48.48 and a 12 month high of $65.49. The company has a market cap of $21.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $60.30 and a 200-day moving average price of $58.36.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.90 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.56%. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is presently 8.21%.

About W. R. Berkley

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.