Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado Decreases Stock Holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado reduced its position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 0.2% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 283,061 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 620 shares during the quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado owned about 0.07% of W. R. Berkley worth $22,243,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of WRB. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 1.7% in the second quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 12,879 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,012,000 after acquiring an additional 212 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 29.9% in the 2nd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 126,950 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $9,976,000 after purchasing an additional 29,201 shares during the last quarter. Blair William & Co. IL boosted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 39.1% in the 2nd quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 6,322 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $497,000 after purchasing an additional 1,778 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC increased its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 2,247 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. raised its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 8.7% during the 2nd 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. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

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 company has a current ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12-month low of $41.37 and a 12-month high of $61.28. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $56.76 and its 200-day simple moving average is $73.16.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The insurance provider reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $3.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.84 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.14 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WRB has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. TD Cowen started coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Monday, July 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $103.00 price objective on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $57.00 price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Barclays initiated coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $59.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $77.70.

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.