W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Shares Purchased by Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC

Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC lifted its position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 50.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,004 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,022 shares during the quarter. Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $341,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 535,471 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 58.2% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,333,418 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $75,645,000 after acquiring an additional 490,669 shares during the period. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 190.4% in the first 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 acquiring an additional 313,234 shares during the period. Berkley W R Corp acquired a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $21,138,000. Finally, WINTON GROUP Ltd bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $18,482,000. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on WRB. Evercore ISI upped their price objective 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. TD Cowen started coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Monday, July 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $68.67 price target for the company. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 1.9 %

Shares of WRB stock opened at $58.16 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $58.37 and a 200 day simple moving average of $55.60. W. R. Berkley Co. has a fifty-two week low of $43.20 and a fifty-two week high of $61.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.62.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.05% and a return on equity of 21.34%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.55%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.51%.

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.