Maren Capital LLC Acquires 32,008 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Maren Capital LLC increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 3.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,005,195 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 32,008 shares during the quarter. W. R. Berkley comprises approximately 4.5% of Maren Capital LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest position. Maren Capital LLC owned 0.26% of W. R. Berkley worth $58,824,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in WRB. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,436,473 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,132,262,000 after purchasing an additional 529,294 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 48.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $857,814,000 after acquiring an additional 4,947,830 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,694,703 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $449,168,000 after purchasing an additional 103,350 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 55.1% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $417,897,000 after purchasing an additional 2,616,227 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter worth $272,582,000. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and set a $74.00 target price (up previously from $73.00) on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $63.00 price target on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $65.13.

W. R. Berkley Stock Down 6.8 %

Shares of WRB stock opened at $65.53 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The stock has a market cap of $24.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.02, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.40. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12 month low of $50.73 and a 12 month high of $76.38. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $62.79 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $60.58.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.83% and a net margin of 12.88%. On average, research analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.34%.

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.