National Pension Service Grows Stock Holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

National Pension Service raised its position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 71.9% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 591,965 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 247,681 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $33,582,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of WRB. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. increased its stake in W. R. Berkley by 51.0% during the 3rd quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 619 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 209 shares during the period. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the 2nd quarter valued at $42,000. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 108.1% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 801 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 416 shares during the last quarter. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 49.9% during the second quarter. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. now owns 580 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 173.0% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 546 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $48,000 after buying an additional 346 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on WRB shares. Truist Financial upped their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Bank of America upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. StockNews.com cut shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of WRB opened at $60.64 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a current ratio of 0.38. W. R. Berkley Co. has a fifty-two week low of $44.88 and a fifty-two week high of $61.96. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $58.38 and a 200-day simple moving average of $55.79. The company has a market capitalization of $23.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 0.62.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.91% and a net margin of 11.96%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.53%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.21%.

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.