W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB Position Decreased by TD Asset Management Inc

TD Asset Management Inc decreased its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 6.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 555,641 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 40,927 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $40,823,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on WRB. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of W.R. Berkley to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 13th. 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. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group set a $87.00 price target on shares of W.R. Berkley and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Barclays restated an “underweight” rating and set a $73.00 price target on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $73.69.

W.R. Berkley Stock Performance

WRB stock opened at $73.64 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a current ratio of 0.37. The stock has a market cap of $27.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.42. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $73.55 and a 200 day simple moving average of $71.81. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 52 week low of $55.97 and a 52 week high of $78.48.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $3.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 quarter last year, the firm earned $1.04 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 earnings per share 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. Investors of record on Monday, September 22nd were given a dividend of $0.09 per share. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 22nd. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.