Blue Trust Inc. Buys 1,251 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 55.1% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 3,523 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,251 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $200,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WRB. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 51.0% in the 3rd 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 last quarter. Quarry LP acquired a new position in W. R. Berkley during the second quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. increased its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd raised its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 173.0% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 546 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 346 shares during the period. Finally, Davis Capital Management boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 49.9% during the third quarter. Davis Capital Management now owns 958 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $54,000 after purchasing an additional 319 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on WRB. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Barclays assumed coverage on W. R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 price target for the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. UBS Group increased their target price on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of WRB opened at $58.16 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.47, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.62. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12 month low of $43.20 and a 12 month high of $61.96. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $58.37 and a 200 day simple moving average of $55.60. The company has a current ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.05% and a return on equity of 21.34%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.90 EPS. Research analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.55%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.51%.

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.