abrdn plc Sells 26,824 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

abrdn plc lessened its position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 23.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 85,329 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 26,824 shares during the period. abrdn plc’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $4,972,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of WRB. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 51.0% during the third quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 619 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 209 shares in the last quarter. PFS Partners LLC boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 51.1% during the 3rd quarter. PFS Partners LLC now owns 719 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 243 shares during the last quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV raised its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 108.1% in the third quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 801 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 416 shares during the last quarter. Coastline Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the third quarter worth $47,000. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new position in W. R. Berkley during the third quarter worth $48,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on WRB. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $63.00 target price on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Truist Financial raised their price target on W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Bank of America upped their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $64.36.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of WRB stock opened at $61.51 on Monday. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52 week low of $50.73 and a 52 week high of $65.49. The company has a market capitalization of $23.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.10, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $59.52 and a 200 day simple moving average of $58.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.83% and a net margin of 12.88%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.35 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.52%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.33%.

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.