Franklin Resources Inc. Purchases 26,930 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 182.0% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 41,723 shares of the insurance provider's stock after purchasing an additional 26,930 shares during the quarter. Franklin Resources Inc.'s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $2,473,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WRB. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 48.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $857,814,000 after purchasing an additional 4,947,830 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 51.0% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 11,321,958 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $642,294,000 after acquiring an additional 3,825,238 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in 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 valued at $208,436,000 after acquiring an additional 2,493,758 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 47.9% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,591,353 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $429,266,000 after acquiring an additional 2,459,073 shares during the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 104.1% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,154,783 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $235,701,000 after purchasing an additional 2,118,641 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WRB has been the subject of a number of research reports. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Bank of America boosted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised W. R. Berkley from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $69.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $64.28.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of WRB traded down $0.25 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $58.97. The stock had a trading volume of 824,466 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,738,730. The company has a market cap of $22.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 0.65. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52 week low of $46.74 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. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $60.42 and a 200 day moving average of $57.93.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 period in the prior year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th will be issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 16th. W. R. Berkley's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.21%.

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.