W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Shares Acquired by Swiss National Bank

Swiss National Bank raised its stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 49.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 911,062 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 303,287 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank owned about 0.24% of W. R. Berkley worth $51,685,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of WRB. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 53.6% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 737,472 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $41,837,000 after buying an additional 257,211 shares during the period. GSA Capital Partners LLP acquired a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the third quarter valued at approximately $732,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the second quarter valued at approximately $4,801,000. Atria Investments Inc lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 49.9% during the third quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 92,574 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $5,252,000 after purchasing an additional 30,833 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Markel Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 50.0% in the third quarter. Markel Group Inc. now owns 60,750 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $3,446,000 after purchasing an additional 20,250 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on WRB shares. UBS Group raised their target price on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price 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. StockNews.com upgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Barclays began coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 target price on the stock. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of WRB stock opened at $60.94 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The business has a 50 day moving average of $58.53 and a two-hundred day moving average of $56.32. The company has a market cap of $23.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.61, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.62. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52 week low of $45.75 and a 52 week high of $61.96.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its 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. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. 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.