Skba Capital Management LLC Has $546,000 Stock Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Skba Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 4.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,327 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 400 shares during the period. Skba Capital Management LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $546,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of WRB. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 48.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $857,814,000 after acquiring an additional 4,947,830 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter worth about $272,582,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 51.0% during the 3rd 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 last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in W. R. Berkley by 55.1% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $417,897,000 after buying an additional 2,616,227 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 211.3% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $208,436,000 after buying an additional 2,493,758 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays increased their price target on W. R. Berkley from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on W. R. Berkley from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Thursday, December 5th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $65.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $63.00 target price on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $64.36.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of W. R. Berkley stock opened at $71.21 on Monday. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52 week low of $50.73 and a 52 week high of $76.38. 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 has a market capitalization of $27.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.32, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.63. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $61.70 and a two-hundred day moving average of $60.18.

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

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend 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.