Retirement Systems of Alabama Cuts Stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB)

Retirement Systems of Alabama cut its position in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 1.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 64,522 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 657 shares during the period. Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $4,591,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Optiver Holding B.V. grew its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 107.3% in the 4th 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 acquired a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley in the 4th quarter worth $35,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley in the 4th quarter worth $37,000. Colonial Trust Co SC lifted its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 79.9% in the fourth quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC now owns 822 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares during the period. Finally, Crowley Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in W.R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at about $59,000. 68.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WRB has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $63.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 19th. Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of W.R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of W.R. Berkley from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of W.R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $70.64.

W.R. Berkley Price Performance

WRB opened at $73.23 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $72.44 and a 200-day moving average of $65.44. The company has a market capitalization of $27.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.99, a PEG ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.42. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 1-year low of $51.41 and a 1-year high of $76.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.07). The business had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.01 billion. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 19.66% and a net margin of 12.43%. Equities analysts expect that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 23rd will be paid a dividend of $0.09 per share. This is a positive change from W.R. Berkley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 23rd. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is 8.35%.

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.