Natixis Advisors LLC Buys 284,494 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Natixis Advisors LLC raised its stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 57.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 775,429 shares of the insurance provider's stock after acquiring an additional 284,494 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC owned approximately 0.20% of W. R. Berkley worth $43,990,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. MJP Associates Inc. ADV lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 4.0% during the second quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV now owns 4,915 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $386,000 after acquiring an additional 188 shares in the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc raised its stake in W. R. Berkley by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 50,637 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $4,478,000 after buying an additional 189 shares during the last quarter. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. increased its stake in W. R. Berkley by 49.9% in the 2nd quarter. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. now owns 580 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. increased its stake in W. R. Berkley by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 39,857 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $3,132,000 after buying an additional 202 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 51.0% during the 3rd quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 619 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 209 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on WRB. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. StockNews.com raised shares of W. R. Berkley from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

NYSE WRB traded up $0.09 on Monday, reaching $60.83. The stock had a trading volume of 1,328,924 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,784,952. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $58.46 and a two-hundred day moving average of $56.21. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1-year low of $45.75 and a 1-year high of $61.96. The company has a market cap of $23.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.62.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.90 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate 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 issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.21%.

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.