Wellington Management Group LLP Has $42.73 Million Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 22.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 753,191 shares of the insurance provider's stock after buying an additional 140,396 shares during the quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP owned about 0.20% of W. R. Berkley worth $42,729,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of WRB. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 48.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $857,814,000 after buying an additional 4,947,830 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 51.0% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 11,321,958 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $642,294,000 after purchasing an additional 3,825,238 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 211.3% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $208,436,000 after purchasing an additional 2,493,758 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 2,118,641 shares during the period. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 128.0% during the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 1,507,757 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $85,535,000 after purchasing an additional 846,331 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on WRB. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Evercore ISI boosted 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 report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. StockNews.com raised shares of W. R. Berkley from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of W. R. Berkley from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $69.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $64.28.

W. R. Berkley Stock Down 0.2 %

WRB traded down $0.11 during trading on Thursday, reaching $60.76. 627,971 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,741,157. The stock has a market cap of $23.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.65. W. R. Berkley Co. has a twelve month low of $45.75 and a twelve month high of $65.49. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $60.34 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $57.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36.

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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.41%. 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 earned $0.90 earnings per share. Equities 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 will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 16th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.53%. 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.