Swiss National Bank lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 49.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 911,062 shares of the insurance provider's stock after buying an additional 303,287 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank owned approximately 0.24% of W. R. Berkley worth $51,685,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 51.0% during the third quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 619 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 209 shares in the last quarter. PFS Partners LLC raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 51.1% during the 3rd quarter. PFS Partners LLC now owns 719 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 243 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $42,000. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 108.1% in the third quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 801 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 416 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. grew its stake in 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 worth $46,000 after buying an additional 193 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
A number of research firms recently weighed in on WRB. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Bank of America lifted their price target on W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. UBS Group lifted 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. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $63.08.
Check Out Our Latest Report on WRB
W. R. Berkley Stock Up 2.0 %
Shares of W. R. Berkley stock traded up $1.20 on Thursday, hitting $62.14. 1,676,755 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,776,805. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52-week low of $45.75 and a 52-week high of $62.26. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The stock has a market cap of $23.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.61, a PEG ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 0.62. The firm's 50-day moving average is $58.60 and its 200 day moving average is $56.36.
W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.90 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 earnings per share for the current year.
W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.51%. W. R. Berkley's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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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