ProShare Advisors LLC Buys 10,053 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 25.6% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 49,310 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,053 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $3,875,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Sound Income Strategies LLC increased its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 563.2% in the 1st quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 451 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 383 shares during the last quarter. Intelligent Financial Strategies acquired a new position in W. R. Berkley during the first quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Covestor Ltd increased its stake in W. R. Berkley by 173.0% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 546 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 346 shares in the last quarter. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. grew its stake in W. R. Berkley by 49.9% in the second quarter. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. now owns 580 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 193 shares during the period. Finally, Evermay Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the first quarter worth about $65,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on the stock. TD Cowen assumed coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Monday, July 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $103.00 target price on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $57.00 price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $88.00 to $83.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 13th. StockNews.com upgraded W. R. Berkley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their price target on W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $77.70.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $56.71 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.38 and a quick ratio of 0.38. The business has a 50-day moving average of $56.88 and a 200-day moving average of $72.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.08, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 0.62. W. R. Berkley Co. has a fifty-two week low of $41.37 and a fifty-two week high of $61.28.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The insurance provider reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.12. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 21.34% and a net margin of 12.05%. The firm had revenue of $3.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.84 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.14 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 23rd will be issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.56%. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 8.51%.

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.