Norges Bank Invests $272.58 Million in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 4,657,926 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $272,582,000.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Whipplewood Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter worth about $35,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in W. R. Berkley in the third quarter valued at approximately $48,000. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in W. R. Berkley during the fourth quarter worth approximately $59,000. Finally, Tortoise Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 69.9% during the 4th quarter. Tortoise Investment Management LLC now owns 1,313 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $77,000 after buying an additional 540 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 7.4 %

Shares of W. R. Berkley stock opened at $71.21 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $27.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.63. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52-week low of $50.73 and a 52-week high of $76.38. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $61.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $60.16. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

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

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.34%.

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.