Brandes Investment Partners LP Raises Stock Holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Brandes Investment Partners LP boosted its position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 3.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,103,658 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 38,170 shares during the quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $64,586,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Whipplewood Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter worth approximately $35,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter worth approximately $42,000. Coastline Trust Co purchased a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the third quarter worth approximately $47,000. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the third quarter worth approximately $48,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 279.1% in the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,232 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $70,000 after buying an additional 907 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WRB has been the subject of several research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group raised W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, November 25th. StockNews.com downgraded W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $65.00 price objective for the company. Barclays boosted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $64.36.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of WRB stock opened at $63.27 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $23.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.50, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.63. The business’s fifty day moving average is $60.38 and its 200 day moving average is $59.77. W. R. Berkley Co. has a twelve month low of $50.73 and a twelve month high of $65.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.83% and a net margin of 12.88%. Research analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

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

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.