Thrive Wealth Management LLC Has $312,000 Stock Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Thrive Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 49.1% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 5,502 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,811 shares during the quarter. Thrive Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $312,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Wedmont Private Capital boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 4,768 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $399,000 after buying an additional 137 shares during the last quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. boosted its position 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 last quarter. Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 5.8% in the 1st quarter. Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC now owns 3,166 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $277,000 after purchasing an additional 174 shares during the last quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 4.0% in the 2nd quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV now owns 4,915 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $386,000 after purchasing an additional 188 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Atria Investments Inc boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 50,637 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $4,478,000 after purchasing an additional 189 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on WRB. Barclays began coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 price target on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $58.67 to $55.33 in a research report on Thursday, June 13th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $59.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. TD Cowen initiated coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research report on Monday, July 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $68.67 price target on the stock. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $57.00 price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $59.67.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 2.4 %

Shares of WRB traded up $1.35 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $58.51. The stock had a trading volume of 1,434,422 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,762,285. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $57.48 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $55.50. W. R. Berkley Co. has a twelve month low of $41.82 and a twelve month high of $61.28. The firm has a market cap of $22.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.38 and a quick ratio of 0.38.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The insurance provider reported $1.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.12. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 21.34% and a net margin of 12.05%. The firm had revenue of $3.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.84 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.14 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.03 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.55%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio 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.