Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. Makes New Investment in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. 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 (SEC). The fund bought 346,384 shares of the insurance provider's stock, valued at approximately $19,650,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. owned 0.09% of W. R. Berkley at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 224.2% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 43,339 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $3,833,000 after purchasing an additional 29,970 shares during the period. Cetera Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in W. R. Berkley during the first quarter valued at $968,000. Mather Group LLC. raised its stake in W. R. Berkley by 26.9% during the second quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 3,931 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $309,000 after purchasing an additional 833 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC raised its stake in W. R. Berkley by 29.5% during the second quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 8,222 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $646,000 after purchasing an additional 1,874 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CX Institutional increased its position in W. R. Berkley by 0.8% during the second quarter. CX Institutional now owns 35,574 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $2,795,000 after acquiring an additional 268 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on WRB shares. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $64.28.

W. R. Berkley Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of WRB stock traded down $0.05 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $63.61. 791,301 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,749,746. The stock has a market cap of $24.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.30, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 0.65. The stock's fifty day moving average is $59.96 and its two-hundred day moving average is $57.18. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52-week low of $45.75 and a 52-week high of $65.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.90 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.94 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 23rd were given a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley's payout ratio is currently 8.20%.

About W. R. Berkley

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.