Horizon Investments LLC Boosts Stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Horizon Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 4.7% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,339 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 195 shares during the quarter. Horizon Investments LLC’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $309,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 21.8% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,022,039 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $357,368,000 after purchasing an additional 900,071 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 15.2% during the 4th quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,787,361 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $280,156,000 after purchasing an additional 632,578 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 20.6% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,279,690 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $191,927,000 after purchasing an additional 560,370 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,119,322 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $182,544,000 after purchasing an additional 76,349 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 121.1% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,949,573 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $172,609,000 after purchasing an additional 1,615,565 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of W.R. Berkley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their target price for the company from $74.00 to $76.00 in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Barclays increased their target price on shares of W.R. Berkley from $62.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 7th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $63.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $72.54.

W.R. Berkley Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of WRB opened at $70.50 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $70.65 and its 200-day moving average price is $68.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.06, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a current ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 1-year low of $55.80 and a 1-year high of $76.38.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.03 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $3.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.32% and a return on equity of 18.83%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.04 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.09 per share. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. 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. W.R. Berkley’s payout ratio is presently 8.20%.

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.