Machina Capital S.A.S. Purchases Shares of 9,658 W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Machina Capital S.A.S. purchased a new stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 9,658 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $565,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Wedmont Private Capital lifted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 8,038 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $456,000 after acquiring an additional 181 shares during the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 5,289 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $310,000 after buying an additional 188 shares in the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 15,632 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $915,000 after buying an additional 235 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 13,631 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $773,000 after buying an additional 242 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PFS Partners LLC lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 51.1% during the third quarter. PFS Partners LLC now owns 719 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 243 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of W. R. Berkley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, March 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $65.00 price objective for the company. Barclays upped their target price on W. R. Berkley from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, November 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $64.36.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 0.6 %

NYSE:WRB opened at $62.57 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $59.98 and its 200 day moving average price is $59.63. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52 week low of $50.73 and a 52 week high of $65.49. The company has a market capitalization of $23.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.63. 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 released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.83% and a net margin of 12.88%. On average, research analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.51%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.34%.

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.