Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Has $948,000 Stock Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System lowered its position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 4.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,200 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 700 shares during the quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $948,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 48.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $857,814,000 after purchasing an additional 4,947,830 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its position in W. R. Berkley by 51.0% in 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in W. R. Berkley by 47.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,591,353 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $429,266,000 after acquiring an additional 2,459,073 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in W. R. Berkley by 55.1% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $417,897,000 after acquiring an additional 2,616,227 shares in the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its position in W. R. Berkley by 104.1% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,154,783 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $235,701,000 after acquiring an additional 2,118,641 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W. R. Berkley Stock Down 1.8 %

W. R. Berkley stock opened at $60.39 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $59.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $59.12. W. R. Berkley Co. has a fifty-two week low of $50.73 and a fifty-two week high of $65.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.84, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.35 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 7.33%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WRB has been the subject of several research reports. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, November 25th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $64.36.

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.