Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Takes Position in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 8,911,719 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $682,816,000. W.R. Berkley makes up approximately 3.2% of Jefferies Financial Group Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest position. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. owned about 2.35% of W.R. Berkley as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of WRB. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in W.R. Berkley by 75.6% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 50,503 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,955,000 after buying an additional 21,737 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 9.7% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 33,990 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,419,000 after acquiring an additional 3,013 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 399.0% in the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 9,506 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $675,000 after acquiring an additional 7,601 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 77.4% in the second quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 878 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $65,000 after acquiring an additional 383 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 5.6% during the second quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 143,282 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $10,508,000 after purchasing an additional 7,567 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on WRB. Argus decreased their price objective on W.R. Berkley from $82.00 to $76.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 2nd. UBS Group set a $71.00 target price on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Evercore set a $69.00 price target on shares of W.R. Berkley and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $69.67.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other W.R. Berkley news, major shareholder Sumitomo Insurance Co L. Mitsui purchased 112,176 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 3rd. The shares were acquired at an average price of $72.20 per share, with a total value of $8,099,107.20. Following the purchase, the insider directly owned 58,780,450 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,243,948,490. This trade represents a 0.19% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders acquired a total of 9,933,862 shares of company stock valued at $688,134,108 in the last quarter. 23.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

W.R. Berkley Stock Performance

NYSE:WRB opened at $69.93 on Monday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $69.70 and its two-hundred day moving average is $72.22. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 1-year low of $60.68 and a 1-year high of $78.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.71, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.35.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 26th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.14 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $3.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.18 billion. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 18.17% and a net margin of 12.10%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.13 EPS. Analysts forecast that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 23rd. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.09%.

W.R. Berkley Company Profile

W. R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE: WRB) is a publicly traded insurance holding company that underwrites and sells commercial property and casualty insurance, specialty insurance products, and reinsurance. Headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, the company operates a portfolio of underwriting businesses that focus on niche and specialty commercial risks, offering coverage tailored to industries such as transportation, construction, professional services and other commercial lines.

The company’s product mix includes primary and excess casualty, property, professional liability, environmental and other specialty lines, together with treaty and facultative reinsurance solutions.