Bank of Nova Scotia Increases Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Bank of Nova Scotia raised its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 366.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 217,535 shares of the insurance provider's stock after purchasing an additional 170,888 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia owned 0.06% of W. R. Berkley worth $12,730,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 68.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 116,767 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $6,624,000 after acquiring an additional 47,515 shares in the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP raised its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 105.4% during the 3rd quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 31,510 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $1,788,000 after buying an additional 16,167 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 22.9% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 753,191 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $42,729,000 after buying an additional 140,396 shares during the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new position in W. R. Berkley during the third quarter worth $288,000. Finally, Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC increased its position in W. R. Berkley by 44.7% during the third quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 9,061 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $514,000 after acquiring an additional 2,797 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company's stock.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on WRB shares. 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 research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $62.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued a "sector perform" rating and set a $63.00 price target on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $66.59.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

WRB traded up $0.96 on Monday, reaching $69.41. 1,716,596 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,806,183. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. The company's 50-day moving average price is $63.78 and its 200 day moving average price is $61.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.32 billion, a PE ratio of 15.91, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.40. W. R. Berkley Co. has a fifty-two week low of $50.73 and a fifty-two week high of $76.38.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 EPS 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, sell-side analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. W. R. Berkley's dividend payout ratio is currently 7.34%.

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.