Retirement Systems of Alabama Has $3.70 Million Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 46.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 65,267 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 20,715 shares during the period. Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $3,703,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WRB. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 49.9% during the 2nd quarter. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. now owns 580 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 193 shares during the period. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 51.0% during the third quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 619 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 209 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 12,879 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,012,000 after purchasing an additional 212 shares in the last quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 12,361 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $971,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Benjamin Edwards Inc. increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 12.2% during the 2nd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 2,173 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $171,000 after purchasing an additional 236 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WRB has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on W. R. Berkley in a report on Thursday, December 5th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $65.00 price target for 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 report on Monday, November 25th. Truist Financial lifted their price target on W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $64.28.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:WRB opened at $58.03 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $60.54 and a 200-day moving average of $57.70. W. R. Berkley Co. has a one year low of $45.75 and a one year high of $65.49. The stock has a market cap of $22.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.90 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th will be paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.55%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 16th. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 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.