Corbyn Investment Management Inc. MD Decreases Stock Position in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Corbyn Investment Management Inc. MD trimmed its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 129,907 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 1,470 shares during the period. W.R. Berkley makes up about 3.2% of Corbyn Investment Management Inc. MD’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest holding. Corbyn Investment Management Inc. MD’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $9,544,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 0.6% in the second quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 737,183 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $54,161,000 after acquiring an additional 4,423 shares during the period. Czech National Bank boosted its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 6.3% in the second quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 73,255 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $5,382,000 after purchasing an additional 4,336 shares during the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc grew its position in W.R. Berkley by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 100,631 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $7,393,000 after purchasing an additional 3,750 shares during the period. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec raised its stake in W.R. Berkley by 70.8% during the 1st quarter. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec now owns 17,197 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,224,000 after buying an additional 7,131 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gallacher Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley during the 2nd quarter valued at $323,000. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently commented on WRB. BMO Capital Markets lowered W.R. Berkley from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $64.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Wolfe Research started coverage on W.R. Berkley in a research note on Monday, September 15th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Barclays reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $73.00 price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $87.00 target price on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company set a $66.00 target price on shares of W.R. Berkley and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, W.R. Berkley currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $74.46.

W.R. Berkley Trading Up 0.7%

W.R. Berkley stock opened at $76.34 on Wednesday. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 12-month low of $55.97 and a 12-month high of $78.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $29.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.40. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $74.50 and a 200 day moving average of $72.60. 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 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $3.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.16 billion. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 13.01% and a return on equity of 19.35%. The company’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.93 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 22nd. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.56%.

W.R. Berkley 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.