Commerce Bank Boosts Stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Commerce Bank grew its stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 28.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,814 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,368 shares during the quarter. Commerce Bank’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $613,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 0.7% during the second 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 purchasing an additional 54,530 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 211.3% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $208,436,000 after buying an additional 2,493,758 shares during the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. raised its stake in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in 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 acquiring an additional 139,588 shares during the last quarter. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 1.4% in the second quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,929,931 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $151,654,000 after acquiring an additional 26,464 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WRB has been the subject of several analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target 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. Barclays assumed coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 price target on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $64.22.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 1.3 %

NYSE WRB opened at $63.06 on Tuesday. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1 year low of $45.75 and a 1 year high of $63.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. The company has a market capitalization of $24.03 billion, a PE ratio of 16.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a fifty day moving average of $58.85 and a 200 day moving average of $56.60.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. The business 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 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. Research analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.94 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.51%. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 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.