Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. Buys 14,089 Shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB)

Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 22.5% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 76,635 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 14,089 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V.’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $5,453,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of WRB. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in W.R. Berkley by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,436,473 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,132,262,000 after purchasing an additional 529,294 shares in the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 11,722,476 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $685,999,000 after buying an additional 116,957 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake 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 valued at $449,168,000 after buying an additional 103,350 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake 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 valued at $280,156,000 after buying an additional 632,578 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in W.R. Berkley in the fourth quarter worth about $272,582,000. 68.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WRB has been the topic of a number of research reports. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of W.R. Berkley from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Barclays lifted their price objective 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. Wall Street Zen lowered W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on W.R. Berkley from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered W.R. Berkley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $74.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $71.42.

W.R. Berkley Stock Up 1.7%

Shares of WRB stock opened at $73.52 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $72.77 and its 200 day moving average price is $65.79. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 1-year low of $51.41 and a 1-year high of $76.38. The company has a market cap of $27.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36.

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

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 23rd were 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 was Monday, June 23rd. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.