HighTower Advisors LLC Acquires 44,384 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

HighTower Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 48.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 136,639 shares of the insurance provider's stock after buying an additional 44,384 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC's holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $7,768,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. GSA Capital Partners LLP bought a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley during the third quarter worth about $732,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 53.6% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 737,472 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $41,837,000 after acquiring an additional 257,211 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in W. R. Berkley during the second quarter valued at about $4,801,000. Atria Investments Inc lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 49.9% during the third quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 92,574 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $5,252,000 after buying an additional 30,833 shares in the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 104.1% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,154,783 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $235,701,000 after buying an additional 2,118,641 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on WRB. StockNews.com upgraded W. R. Berkley from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, November 29th. Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Thursday. They issued an "equal weight" rating and a $65.00 price objective on the stock. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. UBS Group raised their target price on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. 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 report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $64.28.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of WRB traded down $0.91 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $62.04. The stock had a trading volume of 991,360 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,745,833. The firm has a market cap of $23.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.89, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.65. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $60.19 and a 200-day moving average price of $57.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52 week low of $45.75 and a 52 week high of $65.49.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.90 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 16th. W. R. Berkley's dividend payout ratio 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.