Janus Henderson Group PLC Cuts Stock Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Janus Henderson Group PLC decreased its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 12.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,957,020 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 1,364,938 shares during the quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $582,683,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,436,473 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,132,262,000 after purchasing an additional 529,294 shares during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 11,722,476 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $685,999,000 after buying an additional 116,957 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,694,703 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $449,168,000 after buying an additional 103,350 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings 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 buying an additional 2,616,227 shares during the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 15.2% during the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,787,361 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $280,156,000 after acquiring an additional 632,578 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on the company. StockNews.com downgraded W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Barclays lifted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Truist Financial increased 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 report on Thursday, April 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $68.39.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of WRB stock opened at $72.47 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. The company has a market cap of $27.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.61, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.44. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1 year low of $51.17 and a 1 year high of $76.38. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $67.52 and a 200-day moving average price of $62.71.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by ($0.07). W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.83% and a net margin of 12.88%. The company had revenue of $3.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.01 billion. As a group, equities analysts predict 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 announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 7.42%.

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.