KBC Group NV Purchases 37,270 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

KBC Group NV lifted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 50.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 111,362 shares of the insurance provider's stock after purchasing an additional 37,270 shares during the quarter. KBC Group NV's holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $6,318,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,439,361 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $2,161,417,000 after buying an additional 195,763 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 0.7% in the second quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,553,875 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $593,584,000 after purchasing an additional 54,530 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake 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 purchasing an additional 2,493,758 shares during the period. APG Asset Management N.V. increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 3.5% during the second quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 2,698,311 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $197,838,000 after buying an additional 92,242 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,037,599 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $160,128,000 after purchasing an additional 139,588 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on WRB. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price 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. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on 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 lifted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective 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. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

WRB traded down $0.10 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $60.64. 625,884 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,781,793. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.62. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52-week low of $45.75 and a 52-week high of $61.96. The company's fifty day moving average price is $58.46 and its 200-day moving average price is $56.21. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last posted 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. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.90 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.53%. W. R. Berkley's payout ratio is currently 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.