JPMorgan Chase & Co. Increases Stock Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 55.1% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,616,227 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $417,897,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 48.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $857,814,000 after buying an additional 4,947,830 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in W. R. Berkley by 51.0% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 11,321,958 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $642,294,000 after acquiring an additional 3,825,238 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 47.9% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,591,353 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $429,266,000 after acquiring an additional 2,459,073 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC grew its stake 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 valued at $593,584,000 after purchasing an additional 54,530 shares during the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 104.1% in the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,154,783 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $235,701,000 after purchasing an additional 2,118,641 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WRB has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, November 25th. 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. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on 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 research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $64.28.

W. R. Berkley Stock Down 0.4 %

W. R. Berkley stock opened at $58.97 on Friday. W. R. Berkley Co. has a fifty-two week low of $46.74 and a fifty-two week high of $65.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 0.65. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $60.42 and its two-hundred day moving average is $57.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The firm’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.90 EPS. Analysts predict that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were given 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 dividend yield of 0.54%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.21%.

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.