Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. Invests $235,000 in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. purchased a new position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 4,136 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $235,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of WRB. MJP Associates Inc. ADV raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 4.0% during the 2nd quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV now owns 4,915 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $386,000 after buying an additional 188 shares in the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 0.4% during the first quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 50,637 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $4,478,000 after purchasing an additional 189 shares during the period. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 49.9% in the 2nd quarter. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. now owns 580 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 193 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 39,857 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,132,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares during the period. Finally, Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 51.0% during the 3rd quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 619 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 209 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on WRB. Barclays started coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 price objective for the company. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of 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 raised their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com cut W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 0.2 %

NYSE:WRB opened at $62.27 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1-year low of $45.75 and a 1-year high of $62.54. The company has a 50-day moving average of $58.69 and a 200 day moving average of $56.40. The firm has a market cap of $23.73 billion, a PE ratio of 15.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 0.62.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The company’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.90 EPS. As a group, 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were given a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 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.