Apollon Wealth Management LLC Raises Stock Holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Apollon Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 50.8% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 4,085 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,377 shares during the period. Apollon Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $232,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. lifted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 209 shares in the last quarter. PFS Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 51.1% during the 3rd quarter. PFS Partners LLC now owns 719 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 243 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP bought a new position in W. R. Berkley in the 2nd quarter worth $42,000. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV raised its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 108.1% during the third quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 801 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 416 shares during the period. Finally, Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 49.9% in the second quarter. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. now owns 580 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on WRB. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of WRB stock opened at $60.83 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $23.18 billion, a PE ratio of 15.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.62. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1 year low of $45.75 and a 1 year high of $61.96. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $58.46 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $56.21. 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 quarterly 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. The company 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%. W. R. Berkley’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. Research analysts predict that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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 is presently 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.