Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Raises Stock Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 53.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 737,472 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 257,211 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned 0.19% of W. R. Berkley worth $41,837,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of WRB. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 0.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,439,361 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,161,417,000 after purchasing an additional 195,763 shares in the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,553,875 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $593,584,000 after buying an additional 54,530 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake 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 valued at $208,436,000 after acquiring an additional 2,493,758 shares during the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 2,698,311 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $197,838,000 after acquiring an additional 92,242 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 7.4% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,037,599 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $160,128,000 after purchasing an additional 139,588 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WRB has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. UBS Group boosted their price target on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Truist Financial increased their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

NYSE:WRB opened at $60.74 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $23.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 0.62. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $58.42 and its two-hundred day moving average is $56.08. W. R. Berkley Co. has a fifty-two week low of $45.75 and a fifty-two week high of $61.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its 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 business had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.90 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 8.20%.

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.