First Trust Advisors LP Sells 3,246,086 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

First Trust Advisors LP reduced its stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 81.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 746,012 shares of the insurance provider's stock after selling 3,246,086 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP owned 0.20% of W. R. Berkley worth $43,657,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in WRB. Whipplewood Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the 4th quarter valued at about $35,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter worth $59,000. Tortoise Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 69.9% during the fourth quarter. Tortoise Investment Management LLC now owns 1,313 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $77,000 after purchasing an additional 540 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the 4th quarter valued at $79,000. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays boosted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. StockNews.com cut W. R. Berkley from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Bank of America restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $74.00 price target (up from $73.00) on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $66.90.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 0.6 %

WRB opened at $71.25 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $65.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $61.61. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1-year low of $50.73 and a 1-year high of $76.38. The stock has a market cap of $27.03 billion, a PE ratio of 16.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.40.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.08 by ($0.07). W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.83% and a net margin of 12.88%. The company had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.01 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. W. R. Berkley's payout ratio is 7.42%.

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.

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