BloombergSen Inc. Acquires 254,133 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

BloombergSen Inc. raised its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 50.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 762,399 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 254,133 shares during the period. W. R. Berkley accounts for approximately 2.5% of BloombergSen Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. BloombergSen Inc.’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $43,251,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in WRB. Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 5.4% during the 1st quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 14,704 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,300,000 after acquiring an additional 748 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 25.4% in the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 36,959 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $3,269,000 after buying an additional 7,477 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in W. R. Berkley by 5.6% in the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 13,959 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,237,000 after buying an additional 734 shares during the period. Advisory Services Network LLC lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 4.5% during the first quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC now owns 41,187 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,643,000 after buying an additional 1,782 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Finance LLC boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 3.6% in the first quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 7,045 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $623,000 after acquiring an additional 245 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WRB has been the subject of several research analyst reports. StockNews.com cut shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Bank of America raised their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:WRB opened at $59.62 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.38 and a quick ratio of 0.38. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $58.39 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $55.82. W. R. Berkley Co. has a fifty-two week low of $44.88 and a fifty-two week high of $61.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 0.62.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted 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 net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.91%. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.20%.

W. R. Berkley Company 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.