Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. Makes New Investment in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. acquired a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 8,897 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $520,000.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. MGO One Seven LLC lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 6.6% during the 4th quarter. MGO One Seven LLC now owns 10,938 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $640,000 after acquiring an additional 680 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 1,421,032 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $83,130,000 after purchasing an additional 43,940 shares in the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 15.9% in the 4th quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 889,563 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $52,057,000 after purchasing an additional 121,770 shares during the period. State of Tennessee Department of Treasury raised its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 27.6% in the 4th quarter. State of Tennessee Department of Treasury now owns 188,159 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $11,011,000 after buying an additional 40,715 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 79.7% during the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 28,241 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,653,000 after buying an additional 12,521 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $63.00 price target on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $74.00 target price (up from $73.00) on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $68.39.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:WRB opened at $70.71 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $65.70 and a 200-day moving average of $61.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. W. R. Berkley Co. has a one year low of $51.13 and a one year high of $76.38. The stock has a market cap of $26.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.21, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.40.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by ($0.07). W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.83% and a net margin of 12.88%. The company had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.01 billion. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is 7.42%.

W. R. Berkley Profile

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.