Short Interest in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Drops By 23.9%

W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) was the target of a significant decline in short interest during the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,490,000 shares, a decline of 23.9% from the October 15th total of 5,900,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,770,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.5 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 0.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,439,361 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,161,417,000 after buying an additional 195,763 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 48.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $857,814,000 after acquiring an additional 4,947,830 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 51.0% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 11,321,958 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $642,294,000 after purchasing an additional 3,825,238 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 47.9% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,591,353 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $429,266,000 after purchasing an additional 2,459,073 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,553,875 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $593,584,000 after purchasing an additional 54,530 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. StockNews.com raised W. R. Berkley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Barclays assumed coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 1.8 %

WRB traded up $1.09 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $60.74. 2,073,983 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,006,367. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.56, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.62. W. R. Berkley has a one year low of $45.75 and a one year high of $61.96. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $58.46 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley will post 3.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is presently 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.