CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp Has $19.62 Million Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 0.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 335,277 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,210 shares during the quarter. CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp owned approximately 0.09% of W. R. Berkley worth $19,620,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. MML Investors Services LLC raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 49.0% in the 3rd quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 39,035 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,214,000 after acquiring an additional 12,830 shares in the last quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP acquired a new position in W. R. Berkley in the third quarter valued at approximately $732,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 53.6% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 737,472 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $41,837,000 after buying an additional 257,211 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 104.1% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,154,783 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $235,701,000 after acquiring an additional 2,118,641 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley during the 2nd quarter valued at $4,801,000. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 2.3 %

Shares of WRB stock opened at $59.92 on Thursday. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1 year low of $48.48 and a 1 year high of $65.49. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $60.29 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $58.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.35, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 0.67.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.53%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.21%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WRB has been the subject of a number of research reports. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $67.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Morgan Stanley began coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $65.00 target price for the company. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.74.

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.