Danske Bank A S Boosts Stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Danske Bank A S raised its position in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 8.7% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 508,907 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 40,638 shares during the quarter. Danske Bank A S’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $35,685,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley in the third quarter valued at $682,816,000. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 33.4% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,892,799 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $374,886,000 after buying an additional 1,224,363 shares during the period. UBS Group AG lifted its stake in W.R. Berkley by 34.9% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 3,505,867 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $245,831,000 after acquiring an additional 906,100 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 21.5% during the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,711,425 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $284,350,000 after acquiring an additional 657,558 shares during the period. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP purchased a new position in W.R. Berkley during the 2nd quarter valued at about $29,617,000. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on WRB. Mizuho cut their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $69.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. UBS Group set a $68.00 price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on shares of W.R. Berkley from $74.00 to $66.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 1st. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered shares of W.R. Berkley from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $75.00 to $71.00 in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $73.00 to $72.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, W.R. Berkley presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $68.81.

Insider Transactions at W.R. Berkley

In other news, major shareholder Sumitomo Insurance Co L. Mitsui purchased 345,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 19th. The shares were bought at an average price of $70.65 per share, with a total value of $24,374,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 57,508,038 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,062,942,884.70. This represents a 0.60% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In the last quarter, insiders purchased 2,637,015 shares of company stock worth $186,673,233. Company insiders own 23.30% of the company’s stock.

W.R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WRB opened at $66.41 on Friday. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 12 month low of $63.67 and a 12 month high of $78.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.07, a P/E/G ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.37. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $67.66 and its 200 day moving average price is $70.29.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.13 by $0.17. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.64% and a return on equity of 18.99%. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.18 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.01 earnings per share. W.R. Berkley’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W.R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Investors of record on Monday, February 23rd were given a $0.09 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 23rd. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is 7.63%.

W.R. Berkley Profile

W. R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE: WRB) is a publicly traded insurance holding company that underwrites and sells commercial property and casualty insurance, specialty insurance products, and reinsurance. Headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, the company operates a portfolio of underwriting businesses that focus on niche and specialty commercial risks, offering coverage tailored to industries such as transportation, construction, professional services and other commercial lines.

The company’s product mix includes primary and excess casualty, property, professional liability, environmental and other specialty lines, together with treaty and facultative reinsurance solutions.