8,037 Shares in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Purchased by Genesis Private Wealth LLC

Genesis Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 8,037 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $470,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 48.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $857,814,000 after purchasing an additional 4,947,830 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew 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 valued at $642,294,000 after acquiring an additional 3,825,238 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 55.1% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $417,897,000 after acquiring an additional 2,616,227 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 211.3% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $208,436,000 after purchasing an additional 2,493,758 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 47.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,591,353 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $429,266,000 after buying an additional 2,459,073 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on WRB shares. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. UBS Group boosted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Evercore ISI raised their target price on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Bank of America boosted their price target 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, October 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $67.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.74.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $59.19 on Wednesday. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1-year low of $50.10 and a 1-year high of $65.49. The company has a market cap of $22.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 0.67. 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 stock’s 50-day moving average is $60.27 and its two-hundred day moving average is $58.61.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its earnings results 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. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.90 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.54%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.21%.

W. R. Berkley 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.