Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Invests $870,000 in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 12,300 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $870,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of WRB. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 612.2% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,006,528 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $63,904,000 after purchasing an additional 865,205 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 213.9% during the third quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 1,147,961 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $72,884,000 after purchasing an additional 782,280 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 14.2% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,639,296 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $358,039,000 after buying an additional 699,297 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 4.2% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 13,065,224 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $829,511,000 after buying an additional 529,817 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley during the third quarter worth about $20,205,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $88.00 to $86.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group increased their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $81.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $83.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised 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. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on W. R. Berkley from $93.00 to $87.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $90.63.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $77.91 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $84.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $76.22. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1-year low of $55.50 and a 1-year high of $89.18. The firm has a market cap of $19.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a current ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The insurance provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.10. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 21.01% and a net margin of 12.23%. The business had revenue of $2.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.00 earnings per share. W. R. Berkley’s revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 5.93 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 4th were issued a dividend of $0.11 per share. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 1st. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.80%.

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.