W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Shares Bought by Norinchukin Bank The

Norinchukin Bank The lifted its position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 9.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 13,608 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,140 shares during the period. Norinchukin Bank The’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $796,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WRB. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,436,473 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,132,262,000 after purchasing an additional 529,294 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.4% during the fourth 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. lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 55.1% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $417,897,000 after acquiring an additional 2,616,227 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $272,582,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,553,016 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $266,442,000 after purchasing an additional 231,545 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 2.1 %

Shares of W. R. Berkley stock opened at $67.35 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $64.67 and a 200 day moving average price of $61.48. The company has a market capitalization of $25.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.44, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1 year low of $50.73 and a 1 year high of $76.38.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $3.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.01 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.34%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Wells Fargo & Company cut W. R. Berkley from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $70.00 to $69.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $74.00 price target (up from $73.00) on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Barclays raised their target price on W. R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $66.59.

W. R. Berkley Company 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.