Geneos Wealth Management Inc. Buys 395 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 23.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 2,112 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 395 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc.’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $124,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 15,632 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $915,000 after buying an additional 235 shares during the period. CX Institutional purchased a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter worth about $207,000. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 75.6% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 50,503 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,955,000 after purchasing an additional 21,737 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 102.8% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 105,775 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $6,190,000 after purchasing an additional 53,621 shares during the period. Finally, Barlow Wealth Partners Inc. boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 6.1% during the fourth quarter. Barlow Wealth Partners Inc. now owns 255,219 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $15,298,000 after buying an additional 14,672 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WRB has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded W. R. Berkley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Truist Financial lifted their target price 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. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $63.00 price target on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group boosted 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. Finally, Evercore ISI raised 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 issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $64.36.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $59.29 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.59 billion, a PE ratio of 15.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12-month low of $50.73 and a 12-month high of $65.49. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $60.01 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $58.48.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. As a group, analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.54%. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 8.20%.

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.