3,443 Shares in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Purchased by Daymark Wealth Partners LLC

Daymark Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 3,443 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $271,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 0.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,439,361 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,161,417,000 after buying an additional 195,763 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC raised its stake in W. R. Berkley by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,553,875 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $593,584,000 after acquiring an additional 54,530 shares in the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 2,698,311 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $197,838,000 after acquiring an additional 92,242 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,041,442 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $144,371,000 after purchasing an additional 39,594 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 7.4% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,037,599 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $160,128,000 after purchasing an additional 139,588 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on WRB shares. Barclays began coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 target price for the company. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $57.00 price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. TD Cowen started coverage on W. R. Berkley in a report on Monday, July 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $103.00 target price on the stock. Truist Financial increased their price target on W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $88.00 to $83.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $77.70.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 0.4 %

NYSE:WRB opened at $56.51 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $56.99 and a 200 day simple moving average of $72.20. The company has a quick ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 0.62. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1-year low of $41.37 and a 1-year high of $61.28.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The insurance provider reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $3.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.84 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.05% and a return on equity of 21.34%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.14 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.03 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd will be issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.57%. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 8.51%.

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.