EULAV Asset Management Acquires 521,630 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

EULAV Asset Management raised its holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 50.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,564,890 shares of the insurance provider's stock after buying an additional 521,630 shares during the quarter. W. R. Berkley accounts for approximately 2.2% of EULAV Asset Management's holdings, making the stock its 11th biggest holding. EULAV Asset Management owned approximately 0.41% of W. R. Berkley worth $88,776,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 211.3% in the 3rd 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. Raymond James & Associates lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 58.2% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,333,418 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $75,645,000 after purchasing an additional 490,669 shares during the period. Confluence Investment Management LLC lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 47.6% during the 3rd quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 1,363,295 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $77,340,000 after purchasing an additional 439,853 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 44.7% during the 3rd quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 1,134,214 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $64,344,000 after purchasing an additional 350,145 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Financial Mangement LLC raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 47.1% in the 3rd quarter. Boston Financial Mangement LLC now owns 987,823 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $56,039,000 after acquiring an additional 316,269 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Truist Financial raised their price target on W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. UBS Group lifted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

NYSE WRB traded up $0.75 on Wednesday, hitting $60.94. The stock had a trading volume of 905,459 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,776,958. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $58.53 and a 200-day moving average of $56.32. The company has a market capitalization of $23.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.62. 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 Co. has a 52-week low of $45.75 and a 52-week high of $61.96.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 firm had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.90 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were given a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley's payout ratio is 8.20%.

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.