W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Shares Sold by Procyon Advisors LLC

Procyon Advisors LLC lowered its stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 1.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 11,938 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 229 shares during the quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $844,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC acquired a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Clear Street Markets LLC grew its stake in W. R. Berkley by 92.3% in the 1st quarter. Clear Street Markets LLC now owns 398 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 191 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its stake in W. R. Berkley by 106.1% in the 3rd quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 406 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 209 shares during the period. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in W. R. Berkley by 132.6% in the 3rd quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 414 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 236 shares during the period. Finally, VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC acquired a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the 3rd quarter valued at $27,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on WRB. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $84.00 to $92.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $83.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $79.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Evercore ISI reissued an “in-line” rating and issued a $79.00 price objective (up from $69.00) on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, January 9th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on W. R. Berkley from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 27th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $84.11.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 0.9 %

NYSE:WRB traded up $0.75 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $88.92. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 106,973 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,164,286. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $82.83 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $73.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.37. W. R. Berkley Co. has a twelve month low of $55.50 and a twelve month high of $89.19. The stock has a market cap of $22.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.57.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The insurance provider reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $3.22 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.70 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 19.03% and a net margin of 11.38%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.16 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 6 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 4th were paid a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 1st. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.70%.

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.