AlphaCentric Advisors LLC Buys 520 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

AlphaCentric Advisors LLC increased its position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 44.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,688 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 520 shares during the quarter. AlphaCentric Advisors LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $96,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,439,361 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,161,417,000 after purchasing an additional 195,763 shares in the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 0.7% during the second quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,553,875 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $593,584,000 after buying an additional 54,530 shares in the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. increased its stake in W. R. Berkley by 3.5% in the 2nd quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 2,698,311 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $197,838,000 after acquiring an additional 92,242 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 7.4% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,037,599 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $160,128,000 after acquiring an additional 139,588 shares in the last quarter. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.4% during the second quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,929,931 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $151,654,000 after purchasing an additional 26,464 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on WRB shares. UBS Group raised 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. StockNews.com lowered 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 raised their price target on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on 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. Finally, Barclays began coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 target price for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 1.2 %

NYSE:WRB opened at $58.21 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a quick ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The company has a fifty day moving average of $58.34 and a 200 day moving average of $55.76. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52 week low of $44.88 and a 52 week high of $61.96.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted 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. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.91%. The company had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.90 earnings per share. W. R. Berkley’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict 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. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.55%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.21%.

W. R. Berkley Company Profile

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.