Centiva Capital LP Purchases Shares of 33,793 W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Centiva Capital LP purchased a new position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 33,793 shares of the insurance provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,917,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in WRB. Swedbank AB bought a new position in W. R. Berkley in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $871,000. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 224.2% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 43,339 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $3,833,000 after buying an additional 29,970 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC purchased a new position in W. R. Berkley in the 1st quarter worth about $968,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 40.5% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,671 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $210,000 after buying an additional 770 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mather Group LLC. lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 26.9% during the 2nd quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 3,931 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $309,000 after acquiring an additional 833 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company's stock.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of WRB traded down $0.11 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $63.54. 429,471 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,754,981. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52-week low of $45.75 and a 52-week high of $65.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The company has a market cap of $24.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 0.65. The company's 50-day moving average price is $59.54 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $57.02.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.90 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.94 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors 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 0.50%. W. R. Berkley's dividend payout ratio is 8.20%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WRB has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday. UBS Group lifted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded W. R. Berkley from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $69.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $64.22.

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.