Kings Path Partners LLC Purchases Shares of 18,531 W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Kings Path Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 18,531 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,084,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in W. R. Berkley during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 49.9% in the 2nd quarter. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. now owns 580 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 51.0% during the 3rd quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 619 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 209 shares during the period. PFS Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 51.1% in the 3rd quarter. PFS Partners LLC now owns 719 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 243 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 108.1% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 801 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $45,000 after acquiring an additional 416 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WRB has been the topic of a number of research reports. StockNews.com downgraded W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 25th. Bank of America boosted their price target on W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $64.28.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

W. R. Berkley stock traded down $0.12 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $57.81. The company had a trading volume of 719,299 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,228,477. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $60.33 and a 200 day moving average of $58.16. The firm has a market cap of $22.03 billion, a PE ratio of 14.81, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 0.67. W. R. Berkley Co. has a one year low of $47.59 and a one year high of $65.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.55%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.21%.

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.