Intact Investment Management Inc. Has $64,000 Stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Intact Investment Management Inc. trimmed its holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 15.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,100 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 200 shares during the period. Intact Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $64,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in WRB. Apollon Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in W. R. Berkley by 50.8% in the third quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,085 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $232,000 after acquiring an additional 1,377 shares during the last quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP bought a new position in W. R. Berkley in the third quarter valued at approximately $732,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its stake in W. R. Berkley by 53.6% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 737,472 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $41,837,000 after acquiring an additional 257,211 shares during the last quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in W. R. Berkley by 53.0% in the third quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,680 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $322,000 after acquiring an additional 1,967 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the third quarter worth $83,000. 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. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $65.00 target price on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $63.00 price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $64.36.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

WRB stock opened at $63.27 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $23.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.50, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12-month low of $50.73 and a 12-month high of $65.49. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $60.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $59.78.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (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 year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.51%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.34%.

W. R. Berkley Company 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.