BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. Has $52.98 Million Holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 46.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 933,885 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 294,243 shares during the period. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A.’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $52,979,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in WRB. Covestor Ltd lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 173.0% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 546 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $48,000 after acquiring an additional 346 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its stake in W. R. Berkley by 686.2% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 16,903 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,496,000 after buying an additional 14,753 shares in the last quarter. Shell Asset Management Co. bought a new position in W. R. Berkley in the 1st quarter valued at about $388,000. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 8.9% in the 1st quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,974 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $971,000 after buying an additional 894 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 95.4% during the 1st quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,430 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $392,000 after acquiring an additional 2,163 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on WRB. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Barclays assumed coverage on W. R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 price target for the company. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 2.0 %

NYSE:WRB opened at $62.14 on Friday. W. R. Berkley Co. has a one year low of $45.75 and a one year high of $62.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. The company has a market cap of $23.68 billion, a PE ratio of 15.92, a P/E/G ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 0.62. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $58.60 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.36.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.41%. W. R. Berkley’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.90 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.51%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.