Martingale Asset Management L P Sells 21,544 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Martingale Asset Management L P cut its position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 76.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,619 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 21,544 shares during the period. Martingale Asset Management L P’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $375,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 224.2% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 43,339 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,833,000 after acquiring an additional 29,970 shares during the period. Cetera Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in W. R. Berkley during the first quarter valued at approximately $968,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 40.5% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,671 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $210,000 after acquiring an additional 770 shares in the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 26.9% in the second quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 3,931 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $309,000 after purchasing an additional 833 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 29.5% during the second quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 8,222 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $646,000 after purchasing an additional 1,874 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $64.22.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of WRB opened at $63.53 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $59.67 and its two-hundred day moving average is $57.09. The company has a market capitalization of $24.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.28, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 0.65. W. R. Berkley Co. has a fifty-two week low of $45.75 and a fifty-two week high of $65.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share. W. R. Berkley’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.94 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 23rd were paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.20%.

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.