Stephens Inc. AR Boosts Holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Stephens Inc. AR boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 49.9% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 281,666 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 93,816 shares during the quarter. Stephens Inc. AR’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $15,979,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of WRB. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 83.0% in the 2nd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,180,413 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $92,757,000 after purchasing an additional 535,471 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates increased its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 58.2% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,333,418 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $75,645,000 after purchasing an additional 490,669 shares during the last quarter. Boston Financial Mangement LLC lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 47.1% in the third quarter. Boston Financial Mangement LLC now owns 987,823 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $56,039,000 after buying an additional 316,269 shares in the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 190.4% during the 1st quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 477,774 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $42,254,000 after buying an additional 313,234 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Berkley W R Corp bought a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $21,138,000. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Barclays started coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 price target for the company. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:WRB opened at $57.19 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $58.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $55.67. The firm has a market cap of $21.76 billion, a PE ratio of 14.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 0.62. W. R. Berkley Co. has a one year low of $44.24 and a one year high of $61.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a current ratio of 0.38.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.91% and a net margin of 11.96%. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.90 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.56%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.20%.

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.