W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) Position Reduced by Alps Advisors Inc.

Alps Advisors Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 7.7% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 5,611 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 471 shares during the quarter. Alps Advisors Inc.’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $399,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Garde Capital Inc. bought a new position in W.R. Berkley during the 1st quarter valued at $30,000. Optiver Holding B.V. lifted 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 worth $25,000 after buying an additional 221 shares during the last quarter. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley in the 4th quarter worth about $37,000. Colonial Trust Co SC lifted its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 79.9% in the 4th quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC now owns 822 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $48,000 after buying an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Crowley Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley in the 4th quarter worth about $59,000. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on WRB shares. TD Cowen downgraded shares of W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $78.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Truist Financial raised their price target 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 raised their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $70.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $63.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $72.00.

W.R. Berkley Stock Up 0.8%

W.R. Berkley stock opened at $69.42 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $26.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.11, a PEG ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $72.58 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $66.61. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 52 week low of $51.41 and a 52 week high of $76.38.

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

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced 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 boost 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.