W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB Shares Sold by Hsbc Holdings PLC

Hsbc Holdings PLC decreased its holdings in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 6.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,182,145 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 83,961 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC owned approximately 0.31% of W.R. Berkley worth $86,735,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in W.R. Berkley by 1.7% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,961,788 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,715,583,000 after acquiring an additional 625,685 shares during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC grew its stake in W.R. Berkley by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 11,787,639 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $838,808,000 after purchasing an additional 65,163 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 3.7% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,189,248 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $599,271,000 after purchasing an additional 289,172 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in W.R. Berkley by 8.6% in the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,274,234 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $534,438,000 after buying an additional 577,873 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its stake in W.R. Berkley by 2.1% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 2,539,691 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $180,724,000 after purchasing an additional 52,594 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on WRB. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Monday, September 15th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. BMO Capital Markets cut 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. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on W.R. Berkley from $76.00 to $75.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Morgan Stanley set a $80.00 price target on W.R. Berkley in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Finally, Barclays reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $73.00 price target on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $74.85.

W.R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $78.55 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $29.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.40. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a twelve month low of $55.97 and a twelve month high of $78.96. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $75.72 and a 200-day simple moving average of $73.08. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 20th. The insurance provider reported $1.10 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.03. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 13.01% and a return on equity of 19.35%. The business had revenue of $3.77 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.16 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.93 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 was Monday, September 22nd. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. W.R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 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.