Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Raises Stock Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 23.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,886 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,313 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $403,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Whipplewood Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in W. R. Berkley during the fourth quarter valued at $42,000. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at $59,000. Tortoise Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 69.9% in the 4th quarter. Tortoise Investment Management LLC now owns 1,313 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $77,000 after acquiring an additional 540 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter worth about $79,000. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on WRB. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $63.00 target price on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. StockNews.com raised W. R. Berkley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $64.36.

W. R. Berkley Stock Down 0.1 %

WRB stock opened at $71.18 on Tuesday. W. R. Berkley Co. has a one year low of $50.73 and a one year high of $76.38. The firm has a market cap of $26.99 billion, a PE ratio of 16.31, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.63. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $61.93 and its 200-day moving average price is $60.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 7.34%.

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.