Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 758,882 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 14,366 shares during the quarter. W.R. Berkley makes up 2.5% of Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 22nd biggest holding. Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $55,755,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in WRB. Brighton Jones LLC boosted 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 acquiring an additional 21,737 shares during the last quarter. World Investment Advisors purchased a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley in the 1st quarter worth about $215,000. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley in the 1st quarter valued at about $235,000. Penserra Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 239.5% during the 1st quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 7,276 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $517,000 after purchasing an additional 5,133 shares during the period. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. increased its position in W.R. Berkley by 10.8% during the 1st quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 8,637 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $615,000 after purchasing an additional 840 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on WRB. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Monday, September 15th. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. BMO Capital Markets downgraded W.R. Berkley from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $64.00 price target for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Truist Financial set a $84.00 price objective on W.R. Berkley and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on W.R. Berkley from $76.00 to $75.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, W.R. Berkley presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $74.46.

W.R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of WRB stock opened at $74.61 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.37. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $74.27 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $72.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $28.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.67, a P/E/G ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.40. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 12 month low of $55.97 and a 12 month high of $78.48.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its earnings results on Monday, October 20th. The insurance provider reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.03. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 19.35% and a net margin of 13.01%.The business had revenue of $3.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.16 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.93 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W.R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 22nd were given a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 22nd. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.56%.

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.