Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH Sells 797 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH cut its stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 8.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,438 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 797 shares during the quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $494,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of WRB. State Street Corp lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 48.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $857,814,000 after buying an additional 4,947,830 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 51.0% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 11,321,958 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $642,294,000 after buying an additional 3,825,238 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 55.1% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $417,897,000 after buying an additional 2,616,227 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in 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 worth $208,436,000 after buying an additional 2,493,758 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 47.9% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,591,353 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $429,266,000 after buying an additional 2,459,073 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of W. R. Berkley stock opened at $56.93 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $60.22 and its 200-day moving average price is $58.66. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12 month low of $50.73 and a 12 month high of $65.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The firm has a market cap of $21.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 0.67.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. The company had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.90 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.56%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.20%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Truist Financial raised their price target on W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Bank of America lifted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on W. R. Berkley from $56.00 to $50.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.74.

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.