Bank of New York Mellon Corp Lowers Stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp lowered its position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 15.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,947,045 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 350,230 shares during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned 0.51% of W. R. Berkley worth $113,941,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. PFS Partners LLC lifted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 51.1% during the third quarter. PFS Partners LLC now owns 719 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 243 shares in the last quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter worth $42,000. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 108.1% in the third quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 801 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $45,000 after buying an additional 416 shares in the last quarter. Coastline Trust Co purchased a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the third quarter worth $47,000. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the third quarter worth $48,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WRB has been the topic of several research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $63.00 price target on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $65.00 price target on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $64.36.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 1.6 %

WRB stock opened at $63.14 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.67. W. R. Berkley Co. has a twelve month low of $50.73 and a twelve month high of $65.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $59.59 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $59.45.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. As a group, analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.34%.

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.