Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Buys 1,025 Shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lifted its stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 7.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 14,759 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,025 shares during the quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $1,084,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of WRB. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 75.6% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 50,503 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,955,000 after acquiring an additional 21,737 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 132.6% during the first quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 8,638 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $607,000 after acquiring an additional 4,924 shares in the last quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 1.0% during the first quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 37,913 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,698,000 after acquiring an additional 387 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 23.8% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 9,442 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $672,000 after acquiring an additional 1,815 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CX Institutional raised its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 24.0% during the first quarter. CX Institutional now owns 4,391 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $312,000 after acquiring an additional 850 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W.R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of WRB stock opened at $77.61 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $29.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.68, a PEG ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.42. 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 company has a 50-day simple moving average of $73.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $71.67. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 52 week low of $55.97 and a 52 week high of $78.43.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.05 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.03 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $3.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 in the previous year, the firm posted $1.04 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 22nd. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. W.R. Berkley’s payout ratio is presently 8.20%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on WRB shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $68.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on W.R. Berkley in a report on Monday, September 15th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. TD Cowen cut 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. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded W.R. Berkley to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 13th. One 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 given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $73.69.

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.