J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. Buys 1,591 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. raised its stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 56.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 4,408 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,591 shares during the quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $250,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 83.0% during the 2nd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,180,413 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $92,757,000 after buying an additional 535,471 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates raised its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 58.2% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,333,418 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $75,645,000 after acquiring an additional 490,669 shares during the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 190.4% during the first quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 477,774 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $42,254,000 after purchasing an additional 313,234 shares during the period. Berkley W R Corp purchased a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the second quarter worth about $21,138,000. Finally, WINTON GROUP Ltd bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the second quarter worth about $18,482,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WRB has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. UBS Group upped their target price on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $57.19 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $21.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.38 and a quick ratio of 0.38. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1 year low of $44.24 and a 1 year high of $61.96. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $58.38 and a 200 day moving average of $55.67.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 21.34% and a net margin of 12.05%. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect 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. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.56%. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is presently 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.