Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC Invests $14.68 Million in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC acquired a new stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 250,818 shares of the insurance provider's stock, valued at approximately $14,678,000. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC owned 0.07% of W. R. Berkley as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,436,473 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $2,132,262,000 after buying an additional 529,294 shares in the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 11,722,476 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $685,999,000 after acquiring an additional 116,957 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,694,703 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $449,168,000 after purchasing an additional 103,350 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 55.1% during the 3rd 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 period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the 4th quarter valued at about $272,582,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on WRB. Barclays upped their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Truist Financial upped their target price on W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a "sector perform" rating and set a $63.00 price target on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $67.64.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 1.8 %

Shares of WRB stock opened at $70.47 on Friday. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $65.50 and its 200-day simple moving average is $61.83. 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 1-year low of $51.13 and a 1-year high of $76.38. The firm has a market cap of $26.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.15, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.40.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 earnings per share 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 analysts' expectations of $3.01 billion. As a group, equities analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. W. R. Berkley's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.42%.

About W. R. Berkley

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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