Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Purchases 911 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 2.5% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 37,020 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 911 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $2,909,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. ING Groep NV raised its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 7,669 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $542,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares during the period. Wedmont Private Capital raised its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 3.0% during the first quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 4,768 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $399,000 after purchasing an additional 137 shares during the period. West Paces Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 12.7% during the first quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. now owns 1,228 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $109,000 after purchasing an additional 138 shares during the period. Quadrant Capital Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 2,250 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $159,000 after purchasing an additional 144 shares during the period. Finally, Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.0% during the first quarter. Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC now owns 14,221 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,258,000 after purchasing an additional 145 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on WRB. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $58.67 to $55.33 in a report on Thursday, June 13th. TD Cowen began coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Monday, July 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $68.67 target price on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $57.00 target price on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. StockNews.com lowered shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $59.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $59.67.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 1.0 %

NYSE:WRB opened at $58.34 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a current ratio of 0.38. The firm has a market cap of $22.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 0.62. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52 week low of $41.37 and a 52 week high of $61.28. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $57.31 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $55.40.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 22nd. The insurance provider reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.12. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.05% and a return on equity of 21.34%. The firm had revenue of $3.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.84 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.14 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.55%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.51%.

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.