Ritholtz Wealth Management Buys 574 Shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB)

Ritholtz Wealth Management increased its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 7.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 8,218 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 574 shares during the quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $585,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 1.5% during the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 11,722,476 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $685,999,000 after purchasing an additional 116,957 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 1.4% during the fourth 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 last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its stake 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 purchasing an additional 632,578 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $272,582,000. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

W.R. Berkley Trading Down 0.3%

WRB opened at $72.70 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $72.04 and its two-hundred day moving average is $65.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36. The firm has a market cap of $27.58 billion, a PE ratio of 16.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.42. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a twelve month low of $51.41 and a twelve month high of $76.38.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $3.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.01 billion. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 19.66% and a net margin of 12.43%. Equities research analysts anticipate that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 23rd will be issued a dividend of $0.09 per share. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.42%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. 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, April 3rd. UBS Group raised their price objective 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. Wall Street Zen cut shares of W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $63.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $70.64.

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.