Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH Sells 797 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH lowered its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 8.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 8,438 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 797 shares during the period. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $494,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. MML Investors Services LLC lifted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 49.0% in the 3rd quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 39,035 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,214,000 after purchasing an additional 12,830 shares during the period. GSA Capital Partners LLP bought a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $732,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 53.6% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 737,472 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $41,837,000 after purchasing an additional 257,211 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 104.1% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,154,783 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $235,701,000 after purchasing an additional 2,118,641 shares during the period. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $4,801,000. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 3.6 %

Shares of WRB opened at $56.93 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1 year low of $50.73 and a 1 year high of $65.49. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $60.22 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $58.66. The firm has a market cap of $21.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 0.67.

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

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.56%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.20%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WRB has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $67.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Thursday, December 5th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $65.00 target price for the company. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, November 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.74.

W. R. Berkley Company 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.