W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB Shares Sold by Murphy Pohlad Asset Management LLC

Murphy Pohlad Asset Management LLC lessened its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 18.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 10,562 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 2,429 shares during the period. Murphy Pohlad Asset Management LLC’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $776,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in WRB. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 21.8% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,022,039 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $357,368,000 after acquiring an additional 900,071 shares in the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP raised its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 4,198.9% during the 1st quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 777,201 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $55,306,000 after acquiring an additional 759,122 shares in the last quarter. Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC raised its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 7,314.0% during the 1st quarter. Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC now owns 744,516 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $52,980,000 after acquiring an additional 734,474 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley during the 1st quarter worth about $44,210,000. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 60.1% during the 1st quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 826,616 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $58,822,000 after acquiring an additional 310,313 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on WRB. Wells Fargo & Company set a $66.00 price target on W.R. Berkley and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on W.R. Berkley from $76.00 to $75.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Cantor Fitzgerald set a $78.00 price objective on W.R. Berkley in a report on Monday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets downgraded W.R. Berkley from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $64.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $74.46.

W.R. Berkley Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of WRB stock opened at $71.52 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $74.09 and its two-hundred day moving average is $72.30. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a twelve month low of $55.97 and a twelve month high of $78.48. The company has a market capitalization of $27.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.42. 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, October 20th. The insurance provider reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.03. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 19.35% and a net margin of 13.01%.The company had revenue of $3.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.16 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.93 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 22nd were paid a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 22nd. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.56%.

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.