Markel Group Inc. Has $3.45 Million Stock Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Markel Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 50.0% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 60,750 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 20,250 shares during the quarter. Markel Group Inc.’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $3,446,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Townsend & Associates Inc boosted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 2.1% during the third quarter. Townsend & Associates Inc now owns 285,349 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $16,873,000 after purchasing an additional 5,875 shares during the period. Leavell Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 51.7% during the 3rd quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc. now owns 31,232 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,772,000 after acquiring an additional 10,648 shares in the last quarter. ABLE Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the third quarter worth $216,000. Financial Strategies Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 53.4% during the third quarter. Financial Strategies Group Inc. now owns 114,964 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $6,813,000 after acquiring an additional 40,007 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BloombergSen Inc. increased its position in W. R. Berkley by 50.0% in the 3rd quarter. BloombergSen Inc. now owns 762,399 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $43,251,000 after purchasing an additional 254,133 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Barclays assumed coverage on W. R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 target price on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Truist Financial upped 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. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of NYSE:WRB opened at $60.55 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $58.40 and its 200-day moving average is $55.85. The company has a market capitalization of $23.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.38 and a quick ratio of 0.38. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1 year low of $44.88 and a 1 year 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.90 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 23rd were given a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.53%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.20%.

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.