Hilltop Holdings Inc. Acquires New Position in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Hilltop Holdings Inc. bought a new position in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 9,060 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $600,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in W.R. Berkley during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,542,919,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley in the fourth quarter worth $435,752,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 35,572.5% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,219,902 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $155,660,000 after purchasing an additional 2,213,679 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 33.4% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,892,799 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $374,886,000 after purchasing an additional 1,224,363 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 70.7% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,754,383 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $193,137,000 after buying an additional 1,140,349 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Argus downgraded shares of W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Atlantic Securities set a $74.00 price target on W.R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Wall Street Zen upgraded W.R. Berkley from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 25th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on W.R. Berkley from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $77.00 target price (up from $71.00) on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Monday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and six have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, W.R. Berkley has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $70.94.

W.R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:WRB opened at $75.77 on Tuesday. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 52 week low of $62.87 and a 52 week high of $78.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.56, a PEG ratio of 3.51 and a beta of 0.29. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $69.34 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $68.47. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its earnings results on Monday, July 20th. The insurance provider reported $1.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by $0.19. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.94% and a return on equity of 19.49%. The firm had revenue of $3.72 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.28 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.05 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 23rd were given a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. This is a boost from W.R. Berkley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 23rd. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.21%.

W.R. Berkley Profile

W. R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE: WRB) is a publicly traded insurance holding company that underwrites and sells commercial property and casualty insurance, specialty insurance products, and reinsurance. Headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, the company operates a portfolio of underwriting businesses that focus on niche and specialty commercial risks, offering coverage tailored to industries such as transportation, construction, professional services and other commercial lines.

The company’s product mix includes primary and excess casualty, property, professional liability, environmental and other specialty lines, together with treaty and facultative reinsurance solutions.