IMC Chicago LLC Makes New Investment in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

IMC Chicago LLC acquired a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 14,433 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,021,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WRB. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the 4th quarter valued at $213,635,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 612.2% during the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,006,528 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $63,904,000 after acquiring an additional 865,205 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 14.2% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,639,296 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $358,039,000 after acquiring an additional 699,297 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 13,065,224 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $829,511,000 after acquiring an additional 529,817 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS Group AG grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 57.2% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,261,200 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $89,192,000 after acquiring an additional 458,840 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group boosted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $81.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $83.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on W. R. Berkley from $88.00 to $86.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 3rd. StockNews.com raised W. R. Berkley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 4th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on W. R. Berkley from $88.00 to $86.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $90.38.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE:WRB traded down $0.67 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $79.42. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 46,058 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,209,927. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $82.24 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $78.04. W. R. Berkley Co. has a fifty-two week low of $55.50 and a fifty-two week high of $89.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.20, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.60.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The insurance provider reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $2.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.51% and a net margin of 12.23%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.00 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 5.82 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 4th were issued a dividend of $0.11 per share. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.55%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 1st. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.80%.

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.