Manning & Napier Advisors LLC Sells 53,838 Shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Manning & Napier Advisors LLC cut its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 46.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 62,343 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 53,838 shares during the period. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $4,777,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio grew its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 3.6% during the second quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 96,851 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $7,116,000 after purchasing an additional 3,395 shares in the last quarter. Trueblood Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in W.R. Berkley during the second quarter valued at approximately $553,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 737,183 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $54,161,000 after buying an additional 4,423 shares in the last quarter. American Trust bought a new stake in W.R. Berkley in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,847,000. Finally, Czech National Bank raised its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 6.3% during the 2nd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 73,255 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $5,382,000 after acquiring an additional 4,336 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on WRB shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of W.R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 6th. Truist Financial set a $84.00 price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Evercore ISI set a $69.00 target price on shares of W.R. Berkley and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 7th. BMO Capital Markets cut shares of W.R. Berkley from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $64.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $73.00 price target on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $73.00.

Insider Activity

In other W.R. Berkley news, major shareholder Sumitomo Insurance Co L. Mitsui acquired 230,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 14th. The stock was bought at an average price of $69.19 per share, for a total transaction of $15,913,700.00. Following the acquisition, the insider directly owned 52,726,504 shares in the company, valued at $3,648,146,811.76. The trade was a 0.44% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Over the last three months, insiders purchased 3,663,875 shares of company stock worth $255,318,672. 23.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

W.R. Berkley Price Performance

W.R. Berkley stock opened at $69.21 on Thursday. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 12-month low of $56.86 and a 12-month high of $78.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $72.12 and a 200-day moving average price of $72.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.30 billion, a PE ratio of 14.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.39.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 20th. The insurance provider reported $1.10 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $3.77 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.16 billion. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 13.01% and a return on equity of 18.86%. The firm’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.93 EPS. As a group, equities research 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 15th were issued a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 15th. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 7.56%.

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.