Trueblood Wealth Management LLC Acquires New Position in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Trueblood Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 7,528 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $553,000.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of WRB. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 75.6% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 50,503 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,955,000 after buying an additional 21,737 shares during the period. Wedmont Private Capital lifted its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 3.0% in the first quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 8,278 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $567,000 after buying an additional 240 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its stake in W.R. Berkley by 7.1% in the first quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 14,006 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $997,000 after purchasing an additional 932 shares in the last quarter. Abacus Planning Group Inc. bought a new stake in W.R. Berkley in the first quarter valued at approximately $207,000. Finally, Portside Wealth Group LLC increased its stake in W.R. Berkley by 26.8% in the first quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC now owns 5,885 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $419,000 after purchasing an additional 1,244 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Saturday, September 27th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Monday, September 15th. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of W.R. Berkley from $71.00 to $68.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $62.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 7th. Finally, TD Cowen downgraded shares of W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $78.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, June 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, W.R. Berkley currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $72.54.

W.R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of WRB opened at $76.97 on Tuesday. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 12 month low of $55.97 and a 12 month high of $77.58. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $72.36 and a 200 day simple moving average of $71.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.53, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.05 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.03 by $0.02. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.32% and a return on equity of 18.83%. The business had revenue of $3.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.04 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W.R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 22nd. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.20%.

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.