Freedom Investment Management Inc. Buys 3,338 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Freedom Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 64.4% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 8,521 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,338 shares during the quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $483,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in WRB. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in W. R. Berkley by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 274,112 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $24,243,000 after acquiring an additional 4,291 shares during the period. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 96.8% in the first quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 6,006 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $531,000 after purchasing an additional 2,954 shares during the period. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $871,000. Atria Investments Inc boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 50,637 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $4,478,000 after buying an additional 189 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 224.2% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 43,339 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,833,000 after buying an additional 29,970 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 25th. 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 note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Evercore ISI upped their price target on 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 raised their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $64.22.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WRB opened at $64.57 on Friday. W. R. Berkley Co. has a one year low of $45.75 and a one year high of $65.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.54, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 0.62. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $59.41 and its 200-day moving average price is $56.87.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.90 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders 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 yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 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.