9,919 Shares in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Acquired by Nomura Holdings Inc.

Nomura Holdings Inc. acquired a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 9,919 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $580,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,436,473 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,132,262,000 after buying an additional 529,294 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 11,722,476 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $685,999,000 after acquiring an additional 116,957 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted 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 acquiring an additional 103,350 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 55.1% during the third 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. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 15.2% during the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,787,361 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $280,156,000 after acquiring an additional 632,578 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WRB has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com cut W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and set a $74.00 price objective (up previously from $73.00) on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $70.06.

W. R. Berkley Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of WRB opened at $73.47 on Wednesday. W. R. Berkley Co. has a one year low of $51.17 and a one year high of $76.38. The company has a market cap of $27.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $68.97 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $63.42.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 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 firm had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.01 billion. Research analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

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

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.