Wallington Asset Management LLC Has $29.89 Million Stock Holdings in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Wallington Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 1.0% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 406,789 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 4,016 shares during the period. W.R. Berkley accounts for 4.2% of Wallington Asset Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 5th biggest holding. Wallington Asset Management LLC owned about 0.11% of W.R. Berkley worth $29,887,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Hilltop National Bank bought a new position in W.R. Berkley during the second quarter worth $27,000. Spectrum Wealth Counsel LLC bought a new position in W.R. Berkley during the first quarter worth $29,000. Garde Capital Inc. bought a new position in W.R. Berkley during the first quarter worth $30,000. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in W.R. Berkley during the first quarter worth $36,000. Finally, Keystone Global Partners LLC bought a new position in W.R. Berkley during the first quarter worth $41,000. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on WRB. Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of W.R. Berkley to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. UBS Group raised their price target 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. Barclays raised their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $62.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 7th. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Monday, September 15th. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Finally, TD Cowen cut shares of W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $78.00 price target for the company. in a report on Friday, June 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $72.54.

W.R. Berkley Stock Up 0.9%

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $76.87 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.51, a P/E/G ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $72.18 and a 200-day moving average price of $71.11. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 1 year low of $55.97 and a 1 year high of $77.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.37.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.03 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $3.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.10 billion. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.32% and a return on equity of 18.83%. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.04 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W.R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.09 per share. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 22nd. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.20%.

W.R. Berkley 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.