W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Shares Acquired by Parkside Financial Bank & Trust

Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 76.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 718 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 312 shares during the quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $51,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. EULAV Asset Management increased its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 4.4% in the third quarter. EULAV Asset Management now owns 945,260 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $60,015,000 after acquiring an additional 39,716 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter worth $8,970,000. NatWest Group plc acquired a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter worth $8,791,000. Financial Strategies Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 29.6% in the fourth quarter. Financial Strategies Group Inc. now owns 53,112 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $4,126,000 after acquiring an additional 12,140 shares during the period. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 11.7% in the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 185,251 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $13,101,000 after acquiring an additional 19,408 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WRB has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $88.00 to $86.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $83.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $86.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $81.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $90.63.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

WRB opened at $76.65 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The company has a market cap of $19.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.59, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 0.57. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52-week low of $55.50 and a 52-week high of $89.18. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $84.26 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $76.31.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The insurance provider reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $2.76 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.23% and a return on equity of 21.01%. The company’s revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.00 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 4th were given a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.57%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 1st. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.80%.

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.