International Assets Investment Management LLC Purchases New Shares in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 126,844 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $8,970,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in W. R. Berkley by 55.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,331,473 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,620,232,000 after buying an additional 8,664,707 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in W. R. Berkley by 4.2% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 13,065,224 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $829,511,000 after buying an additional 529,817 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in W. R. Berkley by 65.6% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,940,770 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $795,136,000 after buying an additional 4,732,333 shares in the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC grew its stake in W. R. Berkley by 4.6% during the third quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 6,819,124 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $432,946,000 after buying an additional 302,212 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in W. R. Berkley by 14.2% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,639,296 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $358,039,000 after buying an additional 699,297 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

W. R. Berkley Stock Down 0.0 %

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $82.15 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $84.42 and a 200 day simple moving average of $75.17. The firm has a market cap of $21.08 billion, a PE ratio of 16.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.57. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1 year low of $55.50 and a 1 year high of $89.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.37.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 24th. The insurance provider reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by $0.10. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.38% and a return on equity of 19.03%. The business had revenue of $3.22 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.70 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.16 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 5.98 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 4th were issued a dividend of $0.11 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 1st. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.54%. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 8.70%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on WRB. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $86.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $83.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $92.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $81.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $71.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $89.22.

About W. R. Berkley

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.