Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC Has $1.19 Million Holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 47.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 20,911 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,746 shares during the period. Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $1,186,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC acquired a new position in W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter worth $202,000. Nomura Holdings Inc. acquired a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley during the fourth quarter valued at $291,000. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 268.2% in the fourth quarter. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda now owns 1,576 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $111,000 after acquiring an additional 1,148 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in W. R. Berkley by 23.2% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,901 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $168,000 after purchasing an additional 358 shares during the period. Finally, First Hawaiian Bank raised its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 7.6% during the 1st quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 20,166 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,783,000 after purchasing an additional 1,432 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on WRB shares. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $66.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Barclays initiated coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 target price for the company. StockNews.com downgraded W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $65.00 to $73.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $61.64.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE:WRB traded up $1.11 during trading on Thursday, hitting $60.39. 842,618 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,754,993. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $58.00 and a 200-day moving average price of $55.50. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52 week low of $41.82 and a 52 week high of $61.29. The company has a current ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The company has a market cap of $23.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.62.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The insurance provider reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.12. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.05% and a return on equity of 21.34%. The firm had revenue of $3.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.84 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.14 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.02 EPS for the current fiscal 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 issued 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 was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.51%.

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.