Pallas Capital Advisors LLC Takes Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Pallas Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 4,817 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $343,000.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Amundi grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 43.1% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,477,932 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $85,853,000 after purchasing an additional 444,986 shares during the period. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 12.0% during the fourth quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC now owns 4,967 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $304,000 after purchasing an additional 532 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 75.6% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 50,503 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,955,000 after purchasing an additional 21,737 shares during the period. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 6.9% during the fourth quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 130,112 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $7,673,000 after purchasing an additional 8,403 shares during the period. Finally, Savant Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 7.3% during the fourth quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 13,245 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $775,000 after purchasing an additional 901 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Wall Street Zen cut W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, May 19th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $70.64.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of W. R. Berkley stock opened at $73.75 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $27.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.42. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $71.50 and its 200-day moving average is $64.93. W. R. Berkley Co. has a one year low of $51.17 and a one year high of $76.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36.

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). The firm had revenue of $3.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.01 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. Equities analysts predict that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 23rd will be issued a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. This is a positive change from W. R. Berkley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 7.42%.

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.