Fairman Group LLC Raises Holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Fairman Group LLC grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 50.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 70,087 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 23,362 shares during the quarter. W. R. Berkley comprises about 3.6% of Fairman Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding. Fairman Group LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $3,976,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of WRB. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 83.0% during the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,180,413 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $92,757,000 after acquiring an additional 535,471 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 58.2% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,333,418 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $75,645,000 after purchasing an additional 490,669 shares in the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. raised its stake in W. R. Berkley by 190.4% during the 1st quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 477,774 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $42,254,000 after purchasing an additional 313,234 shares during the period. Berkley W R Corp purchased a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the second quarter valued at $21,138,000. Finally, WINTON GROUP Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the second quarter worth $18,482,000. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of WRB stock opened at $59.13 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $22.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.73, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a current ratio of 0.38. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $58.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $55.57. W. R. Berkley Co. has a twelve month low of $43.20 and a twelve month high of $61.96.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. The business 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 12.05% and a return on equity of 21.34%. W. R. Berkley’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.02 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.54%. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 8.51%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on WRB shares. Barclays assumed coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 price objective for the company. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. StockNews.com lowered shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.08.

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.