National Bank of Canada FI Purchases 152,399 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

National Bank of Canada FI grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 61.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 399,854 shares of the insurance provider's stock after purchasing an additional 152,399 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI owned approximately 0.10% of W. R. Berkley worth $23,400,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,436,473 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $2,132,262,000 after acquiring an additional 529,294 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in 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 valued at $857,814,000 after buying an additional 4,947,830 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 47.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,591,353 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $429,266,000 after buying an additional 2,459,073 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 55.1% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $417,897,000 after acquiring an additional 2,616,227 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter valued at about $272,582,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company's stock.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $62.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company cut W. R. Berkley from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $69.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Truist Financial increased their target price on W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a "sector perform" rating and issued a $63.00 price target on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $65.13.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of WRB traded down $1.06 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $64.26. The stock had a trading volume of 498,054 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,790,630. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12 month low of $50.73 and a 12 month high of $76.38. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $63.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $60.71. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $24.37 billion, a PE ratio of 14.69, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.40.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results 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%. Analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were given 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 yield of 0.50%. W. R. Berkley's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.