W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Stake Increased by Royce & Associates LP

Royce & Associates LP increased its stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 37.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 262,082 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 71,027 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $14,868,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Quarry LP bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the second quarter worth $42,000. Covestor Ltd boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 173.0% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 546 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 346 shares during the period. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 49.9% in the second quarter. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. now owns 580 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 193 shares during the period. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 51.0% in 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 during the period. Finally, PFS Partners LLC boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 51.1% in the third quarter. PFS Partners LLC now owns 719 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 243 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on WRB shares. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Evercore ISI upped their price objective 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. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $60.74 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $58.46 and a 200 day simple moving average of $56.15. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.56, a PEG ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 0.62. W. R. Berkley Co. has a one year low of $45.75 and a one year high of $61.96.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.90 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.20%.

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.