Wells Fargo & Company MN Acquires 104,479 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Wells Fargo & Company MN boosted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 3.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,869,705 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 104,479 shares during the quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $167,935,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Amundi increased its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 43.1% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,477,932 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $85,853,000 after purchasing an additional 444,986 shares in the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC increased its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 49.0% in the 3rd quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 39,035 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,214,000 after buying an additional 12,830 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 211.3% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $208,436,000 after acquiring an additional 2,493,758 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 72.6% during the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 98,248 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $5,574,000 after acquiring an additional 41,320 shares during the period. Finally, Quantinno Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 105.4% in the third quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 31,510 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,788,000 after acquiring an additional 16,167 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WRB has been the topic of a number of research reports. StockNews.com downgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Barclays raised their price target on W. R. Berkley from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $65.13.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of WRB stock opened at $65.53 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52 week low of $50.73 and a 52 week high of $76.38. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $62.79 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $60.56. The company has a market capitalization of $24.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.40.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. On average, analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is presently 7.34%.

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.