Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. Raises Stock Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 49.9% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 580 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 193 shares during the period. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc.’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $46,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Wedmont Private Capital grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 3.0% in the first quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 4,768 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $399,000 after purchasing an additional 137 shares during the period. West Paces Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 12.7% in the 1st quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. now owns 1,228 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $109,000 after buying an additional 138 shares during the period. Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC now owns 14,221 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,258,000 after acquiring an additional 145 shares during the last quarter. Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 5.8% during the 1st quarter. Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC now owns 3,166 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $277,000 after acquiring an additional 174 shares during the period. Finally, MJP Associates Inc. ADV boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 4.0% in the second quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV now owns 4,915 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $386,000 after acquiring an additional 188 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on WRB shares. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $59.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. StockNews.com lowered W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. TD Cowen began coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research note on Monday, July 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $103.00 price target for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $88.00 to $83.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 13th. Finally, Barclays started coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 target price for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $77.70.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 0.1 %

NYSE WRB opened at $57.45 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $22.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.28, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 0.62. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $56.76 and its 200-day simple moving average is $73.16. The company has a current ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52 week low of $41.37 and a 52 week high of $61.28.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 22nd. The insurance provider reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $3.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.84 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.05% and a return on equity of 21.34%. The firm’s revenue was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.14 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 23rd will be paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.56%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.51%.

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.