W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Shares Purchased by Covestor Ltd

Covestor Ltd grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 279.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,232 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 907 shares during the quarter. Covestor Ltd’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $70,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the 1st quarter valued at about $201,000. Sei Investments Co. increased its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 59.6% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 194,364 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $17,190,000 after acquiring an additional 72,574 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 6.7% in the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,841 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $959,000 after purchasing an additional 682 shares during the last quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 29.6% during the 1st quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 6,132 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $542,000 after purchasing an additional 1,399 shares during the period. Finally, Koshinski Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in W. R. Berkley during the 1st quarter worth $301,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WRB has been the subject of a number of research reports. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on 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. Truist Financial upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Barclays initiated coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, 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 report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of WRB opened at $59.65 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $58.41 and its two-hundred day moving average is $56.06. W. R. Berkley Co. has a twelve month low of $45.44 and a twelve month high of $61.96. 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 $22.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.37, a PEG ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 0.62.

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, beating the consensus estimate 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 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 company earned $0.90 earnings per share. W. R. Berkley’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors 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 0.54%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.21%.

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.