W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Shares Acquired by State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lifted its holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 50.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 108,421 shares of the insurance provider's stock after purchasing an additional 36,140 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D's holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $6,151,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 211.3% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $208,436,000 after purchasing an additional 2,493,758 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 58.2% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,333,418 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $75,645,000 after buying an additional 490,669 shares in the last quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 47.6% during the third quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 1,363,295 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $77,340,000 after purchasing an additional 439,853 shares in the last quarter. Boston Financial Mangement LLC grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 47.1% during the third quarter. Boston Financial Mangement LLC now owns 987,823 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $56,039,000 after buying an additional 316,269 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 190.4% in the first quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 477,774 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $42,254,000 after purchasing an additional 313,234 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. StockNews.com cut shares of W. R. Berkley from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price 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. Truist Financial raised 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. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

NYSE WRB traded down $0.12 on Tuesday, hitting $60.30. 361,579 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,784,874. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.98 billion, a PE ratio of 15.44, a P/E/G ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 0.62. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $58.42 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $55.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1-year low of $45.30 and a 1-year high of $61.96.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last released 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 firm had revenue of $2.93 billion for 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 business's quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.90 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.