Intech Investment Management LLC Buys 6,567 Shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 4.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 151,419 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,567 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $11,125,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 9.8% in the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 61,960 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $4,552,000 after purchasing an additional 5,540 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning grew its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 9.5% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 87,943 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $6,461,000 after buying an additional 7,598 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 64.4% during the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 43,472 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,194,000 after acquiring an additional 17,037 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lifted its position in W.R. Berkley by 7.0% during the second quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 73,501 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $5,400,000 after acquiring an additional 4,837 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Donoghue Forlines LLC acquired a new stake in W.R. Berkley in the second quarter valued at approximately $2,743,000. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on WRB. Wolfe Research began coverage on W.R. Berkley in a research report on Monday, September 15th. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Barclays restated an “underweight” rating and set a $73.00 target price on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Cantor Fitzgerald set a $78.00 price target on W.R. Berkley in a research note on Monday, October 27th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $87.00 price target on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $76.00 to $75.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $74.46.

W.R. Berkley Trading Up 0.0%

W.R. Berkley stock opened at $76.97 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $74.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $72.71. The company has a market capitalization of $29.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.40. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 52 week low of $55.97 and a 52 week high of $78.48. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 20th. The insurance provider reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $3.77 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.16 billion. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 13.01% and a return on equity of 19.35%. W.R. Berkley’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.93 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 22nd were given a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 22nd. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. W.R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 7.56%.

About W.R. Berkley

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.