Schroder Investment Management Group Buys 131,059 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Schroder Investment Management Group grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 42.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 440,273 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 131,059 shares during the quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $25,765,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,436,473 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,132,262,000 after acquiring an additional 529,294 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 48.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $857,814,000 after purchasing an additional 4,947,830 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in W. R. Berkley by 47.9% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,591,353 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $429,266,000 after purchasing an additional 2,459,073 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 55.1% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $417,897,000 after purchasing an additional 2,616,227 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $272,582,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley began coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $65.00 price objective for the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Barclays raised their target price on W. R. Berkley from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, StockNews.com cut W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $64.21.

W. R. Berkley Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE:WRB opened at $69.73 on Thursday. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1 year low of $50.73 and a 1 year high of $76.38. The company has a market capitalization of $26.44 billion, a PE ratio of 15.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.63. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $62.37 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $60.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. Analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.46%. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 7.34%.

W. R. Berkley Company 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.