Strs Ohio Has $1.97 Million Holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Strs Ohio boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 4.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 27,817 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,188 shares during the quarter. Strs Ohio’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $1,967,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Morgan Stanley raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 427.2% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 10,899,093 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $790,947,000 after buying an additional 8,831,553 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in W. R. Berkley by 55.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,331,473 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,620,232,000 after acquiring an additional 8,664,707 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 65.6% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,940,770 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $795,136,000 after acquiring an additional 4,732,333 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter valued at $199,140,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 119.7% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,377,556 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $224,911,000 after purchasing an additional 1,840,475 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 1.8 %

NYSE WRB opened at $82.40 on Friday. W. R. Berkley Co. has a twelve month low of $55.50 and a twelve month high of $89.18. The business’s fifty day moving average is $84.53 and its 200 day moving average is $75.78. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The company has a market cap of $21.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 0.57.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The insurance provider reported $1.45 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.35 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $3.22 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.70 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 19.03% and a net margin of 11.38%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.16 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 4th were paid a dividend of $0.11 per share. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 1st. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 8.70%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on WRB shares. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on W. R. Berkley from $86.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $81.00 to $93.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on W. R. Berkley from $83.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, StockNews.com cut W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $89.22.

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.