Bank of New York Mellon Corp Sells 350,230 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp lowered its position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 15.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,947,045 shares of the insurance provider's stock after selling 350,230 shares during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned about 0.51% of W. R. Berkley worth $113,941,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 48.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $857,814,000 after acquiring an additional 4,947,830 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 51.0% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 11,321,958 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $642,294,000 after acquiring an additional 3,825,238 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 55.1% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $417,897,000 after purchasing an additional 2,616,227 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in W. R. Berkley by 211.3% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $208,436,000 after buying an additional 2,493,758 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 47.9% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,591,353 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $429,266,000 after buying an additional 2,459,073 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company's stock.

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W. R. Berkley Stock Up 0.6 %

WRB stock traded up $0.38 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $62.61. The stock had a trading volume of 1,139,388 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,870,624. The business has a 50-day moving average of $59.85 and a two-hundred day moving average of $59.56. The firm has a market cap of $23.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.63. 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 Co. has a 52-week low of $50.73 and a 52-week high of $65.49.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.83% and a net margin of 12.88%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.51%. W. R. Berkley's dividend payout ratio is 7.34%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. StockNews.com raised W. R. Berkley from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Sunday. Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. They issued 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 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on W. R. Berkley from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $64.36.

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.