W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Shares Bought by Dimensional Fund Advisors LP

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 7.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,037,599 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 139,588 shares during the quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $160,128,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WRB. APG Asset Management US Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at $2,878,000. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 108.1% in the fourth quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 28,747 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,033,000 after buying an additional 14,933 shares in the last quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 44.8% in the fourth quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp now owns 47,313 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $3,346,000 after buying an additional 14,639 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 249.6% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 386,933 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $27,364,000 after buying an additional 276,242 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Prudential PLC grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 205.9% in the second quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 68,526 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $5,385,000 after buying an additional 46,125 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W. R. Berkley Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $57.45 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $22.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.38 and a quick ratio of 0.38. The business has a 50-day moving average of $56.76 and a two-hundred day moving average of $73.16. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1 year low of $41.37 and a 1 year high of $61.28.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The insurance provider reported $1.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $3.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.84 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 21.34% and a net margin of 12.05%. W. R. Berkley’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.14 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd will be issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 8.51%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on WRB. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $59.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $88.00 to $83.00 in a report on Thursday, June 13th. Truist Financial lifted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Barclays assumed coverage on W. R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 target price for the company. Finally, TD Cowen assumed coverage on W. R. Berkley in a report on Monday, July 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $103.00 target price for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $77.70.

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.