Colonial Trust Co SC Acquires 365 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Colonial Trust Co SC lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 79.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 822 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 365 shares during the quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $48,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Optiver Holding B.V. raised its stake in W. R. Berkley by 107.3% during the fourth quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 427 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 221 shares during the last quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley during the fourth quarter valued at $35,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the 4th quarter worth about $42,000. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in W. R. Berkley in the 4th quarter worth about $59,000. Finally, Tortoise Investment Management LLC grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 69.9% during the 4th quarter. Tortoise Investment Management LLC now owns 1,313 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $77,000 after purchasing an additional 540 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WRB has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Bank of America reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $74.00 price objective (up from $73.00) on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Barclays upped their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $63.00 price target on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $68.39.

W. R. Berkley Stock Down 0.3 %

WRB opened at $72.47 on Friday. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1-year low of $51.17 and a 1-year high of $76.38. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $67.52 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $62.68. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The company has a market capitalization of $27.49 billion, a PE ratio of 16.61, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.44.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings results 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). W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. The company had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.01 billion. As a group, equities analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 7.42%.

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.