SummitTX Capital L.P. Trims Stock Holdings in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

SummitTX Capital L.P. lessened its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 61.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,489 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 8,773 shares during the quarter. SummitTX Capital L.P.’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $364,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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 stake in shares of W.R. Berkley during the fourth quarter worth about $3,542,919,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 37,033,581 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,596,795,000 after buying an additional 309,828 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 1.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 14,921,114 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,143,256,000 after buying an additional 149,605 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in W.R. Berkley in the 4th quarter worth approximately $435,752,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,913,337 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $344,523,000 after acquiring an additional 20,538 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on WRB. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded W.R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $71.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, June 8th. Evercore reissued an “underperform” rating and issued a $68.00 price target on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Bank of America reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and set a $68.00 price objective (down from $74.00) on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $77.00 price objective (up from $71.00) on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Monday. Finally, Barclays reissued an “underweight” rating and issued a $62.00 target price (down from $64.00) on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and six have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, W.R. Berkley has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $70.94.

W.R. Berkley Stock Performance

W.R. Berkley stock opened at $72.68 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $27.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 0.29. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 12 month low of $62.87 and a 12 month high of $78.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $69.86 and its 200-day moving average is $68.63.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its earnings results on Monday, July 20th. The insurance provider reported $1.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by $0.19. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 19.49% and a net margin of 12.94%.The business had revenue of $3.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.28 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.05 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.79 earnings per share for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 23rd. This is a positive change from W.R. Berkley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.21%.

About W.R. Berkley

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.