W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Stake Increased by Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC

Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC raised its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 44.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,056 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 326 shares during the quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $60,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 0.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,439,361 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,161,417,000 after purchasing an additional 195,763 shares during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC raised its stake in W. R. Berkley by 0.7% during the second quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,553,875 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $593,584,000 after buying an additional 54,530 shares in the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. lifted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 2,698,311 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $197,838,000 after buying an additional 92,242 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 7.4% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,037,599 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $160,128,000 after acquiring an additional 139,588 shares in the last quarter. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. increased its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,929,931 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $151,654,000 after acquiring an additional 26,464 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on WRB shares. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. UBS Group raised their price target on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Truist Financial increased their target price on W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. StockNews.com lowered shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Stock Down 1.9 %

WRB stock opened at $58.16 on Monday. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52-week low of $43.20 and a 52-week high of $61.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a 50-day moving average of $58.37 and a two-hundred day moving average of $55.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.38 and a quick ratio of 0.38.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.05% and a return on equity of 21.34%. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.90 earnings per share. W. R. Berkley’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.02 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were given a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.55%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.51%.

W. R. Berkley 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.