Geode Capital Management LLC Purchases 103,350 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 1.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 7,694,703 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 103,350 shares during the quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC owned 2.02% of W. R. Berkley worth $449,168,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of WRB. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 48.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $857,814,000 after purchasing an additional 4,947,830 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $272,582,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in 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 buying an additional 2,616,227 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in W. R. Berkley by 211.3% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $208,436,000 after acquiring an additional 2,493,758 shares during the period. Finally, Madison Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in W. R. Berkley in the 4th quarter valued at $98,446,000. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on W. R. Berkley from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $74.00 target price (up from $73.00) on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday. Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $65.13.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

W. R. Berkley stock opened at $65.53 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $62.79 and a 200-day moving average of $60.54. 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 $50.73 and a 1 year high of $76.38. The company has a market capitalization of $24.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.02, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.40.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (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%. On average, equities research analysts predict that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio 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.