Wells Fargo & Company MN Has $167.94 Million Stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Wells Fargo & Company MN grew its stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 3.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,869,705 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 104,479 shares during the period. Wells Fargo & Company MN owned approximately 0.75% of W. R. Berkley worth $167,935,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in WRB. Whipplewood Advisors LLC bought a new stake in W. R. Berkley during the fourth quarter worth approximately $35,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter worth $42,000. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter worth $59,000. Tortoise Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 69.9% in the 4th quarter. Tortoise Investment Management LLC now owns 1,313 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $77,000 after acquiring an additional 540 shares during the period. Finally, Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. acquired a new position in W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter worth $79,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WRB has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on 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. Bank of America reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $74.00 price target (up from $73.00) on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. 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. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $65.13.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 6.8 %

Shares of WRB opened at $65.53 on Friday. 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 market cap of $24.85 billion, a PE ratio of 15.02, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.40. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1 year low of $50.73 and a 1 year high of $76.38. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $62.79 and a 200-day simple moving average of $60.56.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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, sell-side analysts predict that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is 7.34%.

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.