W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Position Trimmed by Parnassus Investments LLC

Parnassus Investments LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 6.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,060,467 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 73,747 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC owned 0.28% of W. R. Berkley worth $62,059,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Whipplewood Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in W. R. Berkley during the fourth quarter worth about $35,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter worth about $42,000. Coastline Trust Co bought a new position in W. R. Berkley in the third quarter worth about $47,000. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $48,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 279.1% in the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,232 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $70,000 after purchasing an additional 907 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on W. R. Berkley in a report on Thursday, December 5th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $65.00 price target on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on W. R. Berkley from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $63.00 price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, StockNews.com cut W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $64.36.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 0.3 %

WRB opened at $61.77 on Friday. W. R. Berkley Co. has a one year low of $50.73 and a one year 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. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $60.27 and its 200-day moving average is $59.73. The company has a market capitalization of $23.42 billion, a PE ratio of 14.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.63.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 analysts predict that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.52%. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 7.34%.

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.