Avanza Fonder AB Takes $1.52 Million Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Avanza Fonder AB acquired a new position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 26,044 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,524,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Wedmont Private Capital lifted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 8,038 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $456,000 after acquiring an additional 181 shares during the period. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 49.9% in the second quarter. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. now owns 580 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 193 shares during the period. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. boosted its stake in 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 in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 12,879 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,012,000 after buying an additional 212 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Benjamin Edwards Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 12.2% in the second quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 2,173 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $171,000 after buying an additional 236 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on WRB. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $67.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com cut W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.74.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of WRB opened at $59.57 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. The company has a market capitalization of $22.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 0.67. The business’s 50-day moving average is $60.28 and its 200-day moving average is $58.52. W. R. Berkley Co. has a fifty-two week low of $48.69 and a fifty-two week high of $65.49.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The company had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.54%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.20%.

About W. R. Berkley

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.