Mizuho Securities USA LLC Sells 4,491 Shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB)

Mizuho Securities USA LLC decreased its position in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 15.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 24,041 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 4,491 shares during the quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $1,711,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pandora Wealth Inc. bought a new position in W.R. Berkley in the first quarter worth $83,000. Covestor Ltd raised its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 20.0% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,635 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $116,000 after purchasing an additional 272 shares in the last quarter. Cynosure Group LLC raised its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 7.9% in the first quarter. Cynosure Group LLC now owns 5,460 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $389,000 after purchasing an additional 399 shares in the last quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC raised its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 8.7% in the first quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 49,179 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,500,000 after purchasing an additional 3,956 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Forsta AP Fonden raised its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 9.2% in the first quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 66,550 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $4,736,000 after purchasing an additional 5,600 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WRB has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on W.R. Berkley from $71.00 to $68.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. UBS Group raised their price target on W.R. Berkley from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Wall Street Zen downgraded W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded W.R. Berkley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price target for the company from $74.00 to $76.00 in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on W.R. Berkley from $62.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, W.R. Berkley currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $71.75.

W.R. Berkley Trading Down 0.8%

W.R. Berkley stock opened at $70.03 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.37. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a one year low of $55.80 and a one year high of $76.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.56 billion, a PE ratio of 15.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 0.39. The business’s fifty day moving average is $70.96 and its 200 day moving average is $68.11.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.05 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.03 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $3.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.10 billion. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 18.83% and a net margin of 12.32%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.04 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 23rd were given a $0.09 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 23rd. This is a positive change from W.R. Berkley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. W.R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 8.20%.

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.