Baxter Bros Inc. Boosts Stock Position in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Baxter Bros Inc. lifted its position in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 12.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 82,961 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,503 shares during the period. Baxter Bros Inc.’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $6,095,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of WRB. Hilltop National Bank purchased a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley during the second quarter worth about $27,000. Spectrum Wealth Counsel LLC purchased a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley during the first quarter worth about $29,000. Garde Capital Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley during the first quarter worth about $30,000. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley during the first quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, Keystone Global Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley during the first quarter worth about $41,000. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on WRB. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of W.R. Berkley to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 13th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Wednesday. Barclays reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $73.00 price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Wednesday. TD Cowen cut W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $78.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on W.R. Berkley from $68.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, W.R. Berkley presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $73.69.

W.R. Berkley Price Performance

WRB stock opened at $77.81 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $72.72 and a 200-day moving average price of $71.41. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 52-week low of $55.97 and a 52-week high of $78.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $29.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.72, a PEG ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a current ratio of 0.37.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.03 by $0.02. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.32% and a return on equity of 18.83%. The firm had revenue of $3.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.04 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W.R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.09 per share. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 22nd. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.20%.

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.