Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Increases Holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 50.0% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 240,603 shares of the insurance provider's stock after buying an additional 80,157 shares during the quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC owned about 0.06% of W. R. Berkley worth $13,649,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. MJP Associates Inc. ADV grew its stake in 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 valued at $386,000 after acquiring an additional 188 shares in the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc grew its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 189 shares in the last quarter. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 49.9% during the 2nd quarter. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. now owns 580 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 0.5% in the second 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 stake in W. R. Berkley by 51.0% during the third quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 619 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 209 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on WRB. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 1.7 %

NYSE WRB traded down $1.05 during trading on Thursday, hitting $59.62. 1,183,989 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,171,100. The firm has a market cap of $22.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.27, a PEG ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 0.62. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $58.39 and a two-hundred day moving average of $55.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.38 and a quick ratio of 0.38. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12-month low of $44.88 and a 12-month high of $61.96.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last posted 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. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.91% and a net margin of 11.96%. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.90 EPS. W. R. Berkley's revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side 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 announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 23rd were paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley's payout ratio is 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.