W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Shares Bought by Royal London Asset Management Ltd.

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. grew its position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 52.8% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 238,892 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 82,542 shares during the period. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $13,552,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. GSA Capital Partners LLP purchased a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the third quarter valued at $732,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 53.6% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 737,472 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $41,837,000 after buying an additional 257,211 shares in the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the second quarter valued at $4,801,000. Atria Investments Inc increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 49.9% in the third quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 92,574 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $5,252,000 after buying an additional 30,833 shares in the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 104.1% in 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 buying an additional 2,118,641 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of W. R. Berkley stock opened at $62.95 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $60.08 and its 200 day moving average price is $57.29. W. R. Berkley Co. has a twelve month low of $45.75 and a twelve month high of $65.49. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $23.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.13, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 0.65.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. The company’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.90 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.94 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were given a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 8.20%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on WRB. Truist Financial raised their price target on W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note 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 company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $64.28.

W. R. Berkley 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.