Key Insights

• Significantly high institutional ownership implies W. R. Berkley's stock price is sensitive to their trading actions

• The top 8 shareholders own 51% of the company

• Insiders own 22% of W. R. Berkley

Every investor in W. R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. With 68% stake, institutions possess the maximum shares in the company. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

And as as result, institutional investors reaped the most rewards after the company's stock price gained 5.0% last week. One-year return to shareholders is currently 35% and last week’s gain was the icing on the cake.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about W. R. Berkley.

See our latest analysis for W. R. Berkley

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About W. R. Berkley?

Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices.

We can see that W. R. Berkley does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at W. R. Berkley's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Since institutional investors own more than half the issued stock, the board will likely have to pay attention to their preferences. W. R. Berkley is not owned by hedge funds. The company's CEO William Berkley is the largest shareholder with 21% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 9.5% and 6.2% of the stock.

We did some more digging and found that 8 of the top shareholders account for roughly 51% of the register, implying that along with larger shareholders, there are a few smaller shareholders, thereby balancing out each others interests somewhat.

Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.