California Public Employees Retirement System Has $83.76 Million Stock Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

California Public Employees Retirement System raised its stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 3.2% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,184,407 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 36,446 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $83,761,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 4.2% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 13,065,224 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $829,511,000 after buying an additional 529,817 shares in the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 4.6% during the third quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 6,819,124 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $432,946,000 after purchasing an additional 302,212 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 14.2% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,639,296 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $358,039,000 after purchasing an additional 699,297 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 5.2% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,001,848 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $127,097,000 after purchasing an additional 98,500 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 3.7% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,748,610 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $111,019,000 after purchasing an additional 62,917 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 1.6 %

NYSE:WRB opened at $77.85 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.37. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $84.47 and a 200-day moving average of $76.21. The company has a market cap of $19.97 billion, a PE ratio of 13.80, a PEG ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.57. W. R. Berkley Co. has a one year low of $55.50 and a one year high of $89.18.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The insurance provider reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $2.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.23% and a return on equity of 21.01%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.00 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 5.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 13th. Investors of record on Monday, March 4th were issued a dividend of $0.11 per share. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 1st. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.80%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WRB has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $86.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $83.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $93.00 to $87.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $90.63.

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.