W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Shares Sold by Aurora Investment Counsel

Aurora Investment Counsel reduced its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 3.2% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 32,976 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 1,088 shares during the period. Aurora Investment Counsel’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $1,930,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp raised its stake in W. R. Berkley by 48.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $857,814,000 after purchasing an additional 4,947,830 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 51.0% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 11,321,958 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $642,294,000 after purchasing an additional 3,825,238 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 55.1% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $417,897,000 after acquiring an additional 2,616,227 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 211.3% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $208,436,000 after buying an additional 2,493,758 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 47.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,591,353 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $429,266,000 after acquiring an additional 2,459,073 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on WRB shares. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $63.00 price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. StockNews.com cut W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. One research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $64.36.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

NYSE WRB opened at $61.77 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $60.27 and a 200-day moving average of $59.73. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1-year low of $50.73 and a 1-year high of $65.49. The firm has a market cap of $23.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.16, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.63.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.83% and a net margin of 12.88%. On average, equities analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.34%.

W. R. Berkley Company 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.