Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC Buys 970 Shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC lifted its stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 158,438 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 970 shares during the period. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $11,640,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WRB. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in W.R. Berkley by 75.6% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 50,503 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,955,000 after purchasing an additional 21,737 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in W.R. Berkley by 23.8% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 9,442 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $672,000 after purchasing an additional 1,815 shares during the last quarter. Sowell Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in W.R. Berkley during the first quarter worth $285,000. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in W.R. Berkley by 16.0% during the first quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,305 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $235,000 after purchasing an additional 455 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Avior Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in W.R. Berkley by 2.0% during the first quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,029 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $571,000 after purchasing an additional 155 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. UBS Group set a $87.00 target price on W.R. Berkley and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on W.R. Berkley from $68.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Barclays reiterated an “underweight” rating and set a $73.00 price target on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. TD Cowen downgraded shares of W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $78.00 price target for the company. in a report on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $73.69.

W.R. Berkley Stock Performance

NYSE WRB opened at $73.96 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $28.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.85, a PEG ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 0.42. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a twelve month low of $55.97 and a twelve month high of $78.48. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $73.61 and a 200 day simple moving average of $71.86. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $3.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 in the prior year, the business posted $1.04 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 22nd were issued a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 22nd. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.20%.

About W.R. Berkley

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.