W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Shares Acquired by Alaska Permanent Fund Corp

Alaska Permanent Fund Corp boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 1.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 71,728 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,083 shares during the period. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $5,073,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ballentine Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 9,180 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $649,000 after buying an additional 147 shares during the period. Bleakley Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 17,244 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,220,000 after purchasing an additional 148 shares during the period. Claro Advisors LLC boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Claro Advisors LLC now owns 9,832 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $695,000 after purchasing an additional 156 shares during the period. Signaturefd LLC boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 3,511 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $248,000 after purchasing an additional 175 shares during the period. Finally, Allworth Financial LP boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 18.6% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,130 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $80,000 after purchasing an additional 177 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on WRB. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $83.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $93.00 to $87.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. StockNews.com downgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $88.00 to $86.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $90.63.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WRB traded up $0.28 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $78.13. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 224,402 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,245,638. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $84.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $76.21. The company has a market cap of $20.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a current ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. W. R. Berkley Co. has a one year low of $55.50 and a one year high of $89.18.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The insurance provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $2.76 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.23% and a return on equity of 21.01%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.00 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 5.93 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 4th were given a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 1st. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.80%.

W. R. Berkley 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.