Railway Pension Investments Ltd Buys 16,200 Shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Railway Pension Investments Ltd lifted its stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 70.6% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 39,150 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 16,200 shares during the period. Railway Pension Investments Ltd’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $2,876,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $367,921,000. Woodline Partners LP grew its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 4,198.9% in the first quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 777,201 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $55,306,000 after buying an additional 759,122 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 1.7% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,961,788 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,715,583,000 after buying an additional 625,685 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in W.R. Berkley during the first quarter worth $44,210,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in W.R. Berkley by 8.6% in the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,274,234 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $534,438,000 after acquiring an additional 577,873 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

W.R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $78.55 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.37. The firm has a market cap of $29.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.40. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $75.72 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $73.09. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a one year low of $55.97 and a one year high of $78.96.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its earnings results on Monday, October 20th. The insurance provider reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.03. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 13.01% and a return on equity of 19.35%. The company had revenue of $3.77 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.16 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.93 earnings per share. W.R. Berkley’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 EPS 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 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.56%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WRB has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wolfe Research started coverage on W.R. Berkley in a research note on Monday, September 15th. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley set a $80.00 target price on W.R. Berkley in a research note on Monday, November 17th. BMO Capital Markets cut W.R. Berkley from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $64.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $87.00 price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $74.85.

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.