SG Americas Securities LLC Grows Position in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

SG Americas Securities LLC raised its stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 64.4% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 43,472 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 17,037 shares during the quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $3,194,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Woodline Partners LP increased its position in 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 purchasing an additional 759,122 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in W.R. Berkley in the 1st quarter valued at about $44,210,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. boosted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 310,313 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 3.7% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,189,248 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $599,271,000 after buying an additional 289,172 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 18.5% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,542,249 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $109,746,000 after buying an additional 240,557 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W.R. Berkley Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of WRB opened at $77.49 on Wednesday. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a twelve month low of $55.97 and a twelve month high of $78.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $29.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a current ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $74.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $72.79.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 20th. The insurance provider reported $1.10 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $3.77 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.16 billion. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 19.35% and a net margin of 13.01%.The firm’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.93 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on WRB shares. BMO Capital Markets lowered shares of W.R. Berkley from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $64.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company set a $66.00 price objective on W.R. Berkley and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on W.R. Berkley from $76.00 to $75.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on W.R. Berkley in a research report on Monday, September 15th. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald set a $78.00 price target on W.R. Berkley in a report on Monday, October 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, W.R. Berkley currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $74.85.

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.