Dean Investment Associates LLC Buys 16,085 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Dean Investment Associates LLC raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 45.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 51,601 shares of the insurance provider's stock after acquiring an additional 16,085 shares during the period. Dean Investment Associates LLC's holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $2,927,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. raised its stake in W. R. Berkley by 51.0% in the 3rd quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 619 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 209 shares in the last quarter. PFS Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 51.1% during the third quarter. PFS Partners LLC now owns 719 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 243 shares during the period. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the second quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV boosted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 108.1% in the third quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 801 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $45,000 after buying an additional 416 shares during the period. Finally, Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 49.9% during the second quarter. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. now owns 580 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WRB has been the subject of several analyst reports. Barclays started coverage on W. R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an "underweight" rating and a $56.00 price objective for the company. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $64.28.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

WRB stock traded down $0.91 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $62.04. 991,360 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,745,833. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $23.64 billion, a PE ratio of 15.89, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.65. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52 week low of $45.75 and a 52 week high of $65.49. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $60.19 and a 200 day moving average price of $57.38.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 company had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.90 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th will be issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 16th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.52%. W. R. Berkley's payout ratio 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.