Nisa Investment Advisors LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC cut its stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 19.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 180,201 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 42,148 shares during the quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $10,545,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 51.0% in the 3rd quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 619 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 209 shares during the period. PFS Partners LLC lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 51.1% in the third quarter. PFS Partners LLC now owns 719 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 243 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP acquired a new position in W. R. Berkley during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $42,000. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 108.1% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 801 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 416 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Coastline Trust Co acquired a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the 3rd quarter valued at $47,000. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $67.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Bank of America increased their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Truist Financial upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $56.00 to $50.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.74.

W. R. Berkley Stock Down 3.6 %

W. R. Berkley stock opened at $56.93 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.58, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 0.67. 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 stock has a 50 day moving average of $60.22 and a two-hundred day moving average of $58.66. W. R. Berkley Co. has a twelve month low of $50.73 and a twelve month high of $65.49.

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

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. 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 is currently 8.20%.

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.