Cynosure Group LLC Has $296,000 Stock Holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Cynosure Group LLC lowered its position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 21.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,061 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 1,419 shares during the quarter. Cynosure Group LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $296,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,436,473 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,132,262,000 after purchasing an additional 529,294 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 48.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $857,814,000 after buying an additional 4,947,830 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,694,703 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $449,168,000 after buying an additional 103,350 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 55.1% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $417,897,000 after acquiring an additional 2,616,227 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at about $272,582,000. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WRB has been the subject of several recent research reports. Barclays increased their price target on W. R. Berkley from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and set a $74.00 target price (up from $73.00) on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $65.13.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of WRB stock opened at $70.30 on Friday. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12-month low of $50.73 and a 12-month high of $76.38. The company has a market capitalization of $26.66 billion, a PE ratio of 16.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.40. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $62.63 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $60.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.83% and a net margin of 12.88%. As a group, analysts predict that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.34%.

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.