Allstate Corp Acquires New Stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Allstate Corp acquired a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 10,287 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $602,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,436,473 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,132,262,000 after acquiring an additional 529,294 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 48.6% in the third 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 period. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 51.0% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 11,321,958 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $642,294,000 after buying an additional 3,825,238 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 47.9% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,591,353 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $429,266,000 after buying an additional 2,459,073 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 55.1% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $417,897,000 after buying an additional 2,616,227 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on WRB shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $63.00 price target on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $65.00 price objective on the stock. Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and set a $74.00 target price (up previously from $73.00) on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $64.21.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WRB opened at $70.15 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $26.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.08, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.63. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $62.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $60.36. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52 week low of $50.73 and a 52 week high of $76.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. Equities research analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.