W. R. Berkley hikes dividend by 15.4% and pays special dividend

Insurer W.R. Berkley (WRB) has announced today that it will raise its quarterly dividend by 15.4% to $0.10 quarterly per share. Also a special dividend of $0.50 per share will be paid by WRB. The first regular quarterly cash dividend at the new rate of 10 cents per share will be paid on July 7, 2022 to stockholders of record at the close of business on June 27, 2022. The per share dividend amounts above reflect the 3-for-2 common stock split effected on March 23, 2022. 

The regular annual dividend rate of 40 cents per share for WRB yields 0.6% at a stock price of $67. Including today’s announced special and ordinary dividends, total capital returned to shareholders during 2022 is approximately $182 million. For WRB this new dividend hike makes 2022 the 21st consecutive year of increased annual dividends.

W. R. Berkley Corporation is an insurance holding company. The company operates worldwide in two segments of the property casualty insurance business: Insurance and Reinsurance. The insurance business consists of predominantly commercial insurance business, including excess and surplus lines, admitted lines and specialty personal lines throughout the United States, as well as insurance business in the United Kingdom, Continental Europe, South America, Canada, Mexico, Scandinavia, Asia and Australia. The reinsurance business operates as reinsurance business on a facultative and treaty basis, primarily in the United States, United Kingdom, Continental Europe, Australia, the Asia-Pacific region and South Africa. Founded in 1967, W. R. Berkley Corporation has grown from a small investment management firm into one of the largest commercial lines property and casualty insurers in the United States. The company has paid cash dividends each year since 1978.