W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Shares Bought by NEOS Investment Management LLC

NEOS Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 29.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 16,227 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,729 shares during the period. NEOS Investment Management LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $950,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Amundi grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 43.1% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 1,477,932 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $85,853,000 after buying an additional 444,986 shares in the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 49.0% during the 3rd quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 39,035 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,214,000 after acquiring an additional 12,830 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 211.3% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $208,436,000 after purchasing an additional 2,493,758 shares during the period. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in W. R. Berkley by 72.6% during the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 98,248 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $5,574,000 after purchasing an additional 41,320 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Townsquare Capital LLC raised its stake in W. R. Berkley by 70.7% during the third quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 37,821 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,146,000 after purchasing an additional 15,664 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WRB has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded W. R. Berkley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $63.00 target price on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $65.00 price target for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $64.36.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 7.4 %

Shares of WRB stock opened at $71.21 on Monday. W. R. Berkley Co. has a fifty-two week low of $50.73 and a fifty-two week high of $76.38. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $61.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $60.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.63. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. Equities research analysts predict that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.34%.

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.