Scotia Capital Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Scotia Capital Inc. grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 27.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 31,733 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,751 shares during the period. Scotia Capital Inc.’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $1,857,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in WRB. Amundi raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 43.1% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 1,477,932 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $85,853,000 after purchasing an additional 444,986 shares during the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 49.0% during the 3rd quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 39,035 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,214,000 after acquiring an additional 12,830 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 211.3% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $208,436,000 after acquiring an additional 2,493,758 shares during the period. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 72.6% in the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 98,248 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $5,574,000 after purchasing an additional 41,320 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. bought a new position in W. R. Berkley in the 4th quarter worth $982,000. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on WRB. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $63.00 price target on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $70.00 to $69.00 in a report on Wednesday. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $62.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com lowered W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $66.59.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 2.1 %

Shares of WRB stock opened at $68.53 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $63.78 and its 200-day moving average price is $60.98. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12-month low of $50.73 and a 12-month high of $76.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.40. 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 (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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.83% and a net margin of 12.88%. Equities research analysts predict that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.47%. 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.