Public Sector Pension Investment Board Boosts Stock Holdings in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB)

Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its holdings in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 2.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 80,244 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,107 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $5,710,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Optiver Holding B.V. boosted its holdings 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 valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares during the last quarter. Spectrum Wealth Counsel LLC purchased a new position in W.R. Berkley during the first quarter worth about $29,000. Garde Capital Inc. purchased a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley in the first quarter valued at approximately $30,000. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley in the first quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Finally, Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new position in W.R. Berkley in the fourth quarter worth approximately $37,000. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have weighed in on WRB shares. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. TD Cowen cut shares of W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $78.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Friday, June 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of W.R. Berkley to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $72.54.

W.R. Berkley Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of WRB stock opened at $70.75 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $70.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $68.37. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a twelve month low of $55.80 and a twelve month high of $76.38. The company has a market capitalization of $26.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.12, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a current ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.03 by $0.02. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.32% and a return on equity of 18.83%. The firm had revenue of $3.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.04 EPS. Research analysts forecast 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 announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 23rd were issued a $0.09 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 23rd. This is a positive change from W.R. Berkley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. W.R. Berkley’s payout ratio is presently 8.20%.

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.