W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Shares Purchased by Dimensional Fund Advisors LP

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 2.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,119,322 shares of the insurance provider's stock after acquiring an additional 76,349 shares during the quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned 0.82% of W. R. Berkley worth $182,544,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in WRB. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,436,473 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $2,132,262,000 after purchasing an additional 529,294 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,694,703 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $449,168,000 after acquiring an additional 103,350 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 55.1% during the third 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 during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter worth about $272,582,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,553,016 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $266,442,000 after purchasing an additional 231,545 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays upped their target price on W. R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a "sector perform" rating and issued a $63.00 target price on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Bank of America reiterated 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. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday. One investment 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $66.90.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

NYSE WRB opened at $71.25 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $65.07 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $61.61. The stock has a market cap of $27.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52 week low of $50.73 and a 52 week high of $76.38.

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

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. W. R. Berkley's payout ratio is currently 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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