Compass Capital Corp MA ADV Takes $320,000 Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Compass Capital Corp MA ADV acquired a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 5,387 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $320,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. MML Investors Services LLC increased its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 49.0% during the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 39,035 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,214,000 after buying an additional 12,830 shares in the last quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP bought a new stake in W. R. Berkley during the 3rd quarter worth $732,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 53.6% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 737,472 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $41,837,000 after purchasing an additional 257,211 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 104.1% in the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,154,783 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $235,701,000 after purchasing an additional 2,118,641 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 211.3% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $208,436,000 after purchasing an additional 2,493,758 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on WRB. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $63.00 price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Morgan Stanley began coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Thursday, December 5th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $65.00 price target on the stock. Barclays increased their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $64.36.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of W. R. Berkley stock opened at $61.01 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $59.21 and its 200 day moving average is $59.18. W. R. Berkley Co. has a one year low of $50.73 and a one year high of $65.49. The firm has a market cap of $23.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.98, a PEG ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 0.67. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.83% and a net margin of 12.88%. Equities research analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 7.33%.

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.