W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB Shares Purchased by Nisa Investment Advisors LLC

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 10.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 199,112 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 18,578 shares during the quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC owned approximately 0.05% of W.R. Berkley worth $14,629,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 5.2% in the 2nd quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 19,334 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,420,000 after purchasing an additional 958 shares during the period. Wealthfront Advisers LLC boosted its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 23.6% in the 2nd quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 21,517 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,581,000 after purchasing an additional 4,105 shares during the period. Whipplewood Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 148.4% in the 2nd quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 616 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 368 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 8.3% in the 2nd quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 32,571 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,393,000 after purchasing an additional 2,493 shares during the period. Finally, Stegent Equity Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 8.5% in the 2nd quarter. Stegent Equity Advisors Inc. now owns 20,529 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,508,000 after purchasing an additional 1,614 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WRB has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group set a $87.00 target price on W.R. Berkley and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wolfe Research started coverage on W.R. Berkley in a research report on Monday, September 15th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Friday. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $73.00 price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, W.R. Berkley has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $74.77.

W.R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of WRB stock opened at $75.01 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $28.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.42. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $74.02 and a 200-day simple moving average of $72.19. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 12-month low of $55.97 and a 12-month high of $78.48. The company has a current ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its earnings results on Monday, October 20th. The insurance provider reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $3.16 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.16 billion. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 19.35% and a net margin of 13.01%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.93 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.09 per share. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 22nd. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is 7.56%.

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.