CFO4Life L.P. Makes New $685,000 Investment in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

CFO4Life L.P. purchased a new stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB – Get Rating) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 9,435 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $685,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of WRB. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 55.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,331,473 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,620,232,000 after buying an additional 8,664,707 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 65.6% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,940,770 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $795,136,000 after acquiring an additional 4,732,333 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 119.7% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,377,556 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $224,911,000 after acquiring an additional 1,840,475 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in W. R. Berkley by 132.7% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,697,989 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $113,069,000 after purchasing an additional 968,387 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors raised its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 50.0% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 2,112,557 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $140,675,000 after purchasing an additional 704,176 shares during the last quarter. 71.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on WRB. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on W. R. Berkley from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 22nd. Bank of America upgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $77.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Thursday, January 19th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $76.00 price target on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Thursday. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $79.09.

W. R. Berkley Stock Down 3.0 %

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $61.00 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $16.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a current ratio of 0.38. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1 year low of $59.50 and a 1 year high of $76.99. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $67.92 and its 200 day moving average price is $69.75.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 26th. The insurance provider reported $1.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.92 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 18.50% and a net margin of 12.37%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.02 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.9 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 8th. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.08%.

About W. R. Berkley

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W.R. Berkley Corp. is an insurance holding company, which engages in the property casualty insurance business. It operates through the following segments: Insurance and Reinsurance & Monoline Excess. The Insurance segment includes excess and surplus lines, admitted lines, and specialty personal lines throughout the United States, as well as insurance businesses in the United Kingdom, Continental Europe, South America, Canada, Mexico, Scandinavia, Asia, and Australia.