Short Interest in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Drops By 28.3%

W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,280,000 shares, a decline of 28.3% from the March 31st total of 5,970,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,010,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.1 days. Currently, 1.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on WRB. Barclays boosted their price target on W. R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Bank of America reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $74.00 price target (up from $73.00) on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $68.39.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On W. R. Berkley

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Amundi raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 43.1% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,477,932 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $85,853,000 after acquiring an additional 444,986 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 211.3% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $208,436,000 after purchasing an additional 2,493,758 shares during the period. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. bought a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $982,000. Merit Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $560,000. Finally, HighPoint Advisor Group LLC raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 12.0% in the fourth quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC now owns 4,967 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $304,000 after purchasing an additional 532 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 0.8 %

NYSE:WRB opened at $71.26 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.33, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.40. W. R. Berkley has a 1-year low of $51.17 and a 1-year high of $76.38. 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 business’s fifty day moving average price is $65.91 and its 200 day moving average price is $62.01.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $3.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.01 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.83% and a net margin of 12.88%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley will post 4.33 earnings per share 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. Investors 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 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is presently 7.42%.

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.