Empowered Funds LLC Has $1.77 Million Stock Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Empowered Funds LLC boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 120.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 31,172 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 17,003 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $1,768,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Covestor Ltd raised its stake 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 purchasing an additional 346 shares in the last quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 9.1% during the 1st quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 29,845 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,640,000 after purchasing an additional 2,483 shares during the period. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 448.8% in the first quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 13,348 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,180,000 after acquiring an additional 10,916 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 686.2% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 16,903 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,496,000 after purchasing an additional 14,753 shares during the period. Finally, Shell Asset Management Co. purchased a new position in W. R. Berkley during the 1st quarter valued at about $388,000. 68.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WRB has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 1.2 %

W. R. Berkley stock opened at $60.94 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $58.53 and a two-hundred day moving average of $56.32. The stock has a market cap of $23.22 billion, a PE ratio of 15.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36. W. R. Berkley Co. has a one year low of $45.75 and a one year high of $61.96.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released 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. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. The company had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.90 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.53%. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 8.20%.

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.