Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 112.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 23,833 shares of the insurance provider's stock after purchasing an additional 12,632 shares during the period. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC's holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $1,352,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 22.9% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 753,191 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $42,729,000 after buying an additional 140,396 shares during the period. Wexford Capital LP purchased a new stake in W. R. Berkley during the third quarter valued at $233,000. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC increased its position in W. R. Berkley by 161.1% during the third quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 236,354 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $13,408,000 after acquiring an additional 145,836 shares during the last quarter. Stansberry Asset Management LLC increased its position in W. R. Berkley by 50.3% in the third quarter. Stansberry Asset Management LLC now owns 412,209 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $23,385,000 after buying an additional 137,952 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased its position in W. R. Berkley by 48.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $857,814,000 after buying an additional 4,947,830 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
WRB has been the subject of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. They set an "equal weight" rating and a $65.00 price target for the company. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised W. R. Berkley from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $69.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $64.28.
Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on WRB
W. R. Berkley Trading Down 0.7 %
Shares of WRB traded down $0.43 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $60.86. The company had a trading volume of 2,196,288 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,745,946. The stock has a market cap of $23.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.65. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $60.27 and a 200-day simple moving average of $57.44. W. R. Berkley Co. has a fifty-two week low of $45.75 and a fifty-two week high of $65.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.
W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last released 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. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.
W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 16th. W. R. Berkley's payout ratio is 8.20%.
About W. R. Berkley
(
Free Report)
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.
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