Aurelius Family Office LLC Invests $878,000 in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Aurelius Family Office LLC purchased a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 14,999 shares of the insurance provider's stock, valued at approximately $878,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in WRB. Wedmont Private Capital boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 8,038 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $456,000 after acquiring an additional 181 shares during the last quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 51.0% in the third quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 619 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 209 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 15,632 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $915,000 after buying an additional 235 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 13,631 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $773,000 after buying an additional 242 shares during the period. Finally, PFS Partners LLC lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 51.1% in the third quarter. PFS Partners LLC now owns 719 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 243 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have issued reports on WRB shares. StockNews.com lowered W. R. Berkley from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Bank of America boosted their price target on W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. UBS Group boosted their price target on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Evercore ISI upped their target price on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on W. R. Berkley from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $64.36.

W. R. Berkley Stock Down 0.7 %

NYSE WRB traded down $0.44 on Wednesday, reaching $60.76. The company had a trading volume of 1,453,953 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,048,321. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 0.67. The company's fifty day moving average is $59.41 and its 200 day moving average is $58.95. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52-week low of $50.73 and a 52-week high of $65.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.83% and a net margin of 12.88%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.53%. W. R. Berkley's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.33%.

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.