W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) is Wallington Asset Management LLC’s 8th Largest Position

Wallington Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 0.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 399,782 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 856 shares during the quarter. W. R. Berkley comprises 3.4% of Wallington Asset Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Wallington Asset Management LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $23,395,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 48.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $857,814,000 after buying an additional 4,947,830 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 51.0% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 11,321,958 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $642,294,000 after purchasing an additional 3,825,238 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in W. R. Berkley by 47.9% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,591,353 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $429,266,000 after purchasing an additional 2,459,073 shares during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,553,875 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $593,584,000 after purchasing an additional 54,530 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 55.1% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $417,897,000 after buying an additional 2,616,227 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently weighed in on WRB shares. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Barclays cut their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $56.00 to $50.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $67.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.74.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

NYSE:WRB opened at $59.57 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $60.28 and a two-hundred day moving average of $58.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. The stock has a market cap of $22.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.26, a PEG ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 0.67. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1-year low of $48.69 and a 1-year high of $65.49.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.20%.

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.