DORVAL Corp Purchases 2,672 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

DORVAL Corp lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 50.2% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,993 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,672 shares during the quarter. W. R. Berkley accounts for 0.2% of DORVAL Corp’s portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest position. DORVAL Corp’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $477,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 0.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,439,361 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,161,417,000 after purchasing an additional 195,763 shares in the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 0.7% during the second quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,553,875 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $593,584,000 after purchasing an additional 54,530 shares in the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 3.5% in the 2nd quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 2,698,311 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $197,838,000 after acquiring an additional 92,242 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 7.4% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,037,599 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $160,128,000 after acquiring an additional 139,588 shares in the last quarter. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,929,931 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $151,654,000 after acquiring an additional 26,464 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. StockNews.com cut shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen initiated coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Monday, July 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $68.67 price target on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Stock Down 1.9 %

W. R. Berkley stock opened at $58.16 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.30 billion, a PE ratio of 15.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.62. The company’s 50-day moving average is $58.37 and its 200-day moving average is $55.60. W. R. Berkley Co. has a fifty-two week low of $43.20 and a fifty-two week high of $61.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.38 and a quick ratio of 0.38.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. The company 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 12.05% and a return on equity of 21.34%. W. R. Berkley’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.90 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.02 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.55%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.51%.

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.