Edgestream Partners L.P. Buys Shares of 39,879 W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Edgestream Partners L.P. bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 39,879 shares of the insurance provider's stock, valued at approximately $2,262,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 211.3% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $208,436,000 after purchasing an additional 2,493,758 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 104.1% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,154,783 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $235,701,000 after acquiring an additional 2,118,641 shares during the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 128.0% in the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 1,507,757 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $85,535,000 after acquiring an additional 846,331 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 38.0% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,031,786 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $115,263,000 after acquiring an additional 559,043 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EULAV Asset Management boosted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 50.0% during the third quarter. EULAV Asset Management now owns 1,564,890 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $88,776,000 after purchasing an additional 521,630 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

W. R. Berkley Stock Down 0.2 %

WRB stock traded down $0.12 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $63.53. 1,080,968 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,210,761. 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 cap of $24.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 0.65. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1 year low of $45.75 and a 1 year high of $65.49. The firm's 50 day moving average is $59.67 and its two-hundred day moving average is $57.09.

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

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed 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 was Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. W. R. Berkley's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.20%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on WRB. Evercore ISI raised their price target on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of 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. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded W. R. Berkley from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $69.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus 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.