Intech Investment Management LLC Increases Stock Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Intech Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 29.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 126,950 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 29,201 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $9,976,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Blair William & Co. IL grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 39.1% in the second quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 6,322 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $497,000 after purchasing an additional 1,778 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 16.1% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 16,184 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,272,000 after buying an additional 2,247 shares in the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 8.7% during the second quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 28,879 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,269,000 after buying an additional 2,316 shares during the period. Argent Trust Co lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 11.7% in the second quarter. Argent Trust Co now owns 3,209 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $252,000 after buying an additional 335 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position 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 acquiring an additional 139,588 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on WRB. TD Cowen started coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Monday, July 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $103.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com lowered W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $57.00 target price on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $59.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Barclays assumed coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 price objective on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $77.70.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

NYSE:WRB opened at $57.45 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $22.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.28, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 0.62. The business has a 50 day moving average of $56.76 and a 200 day moving average of $73.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.38 and a quick ratio of 0.38. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1-year low of $41.37 and a 1-year high of $61.28.

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

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd will be paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.56%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.51%.

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.