1,543 Shares in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Bought by GAMMA Investing LLC

GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 1,543 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $109,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of WRB. Morgan Stanley increased its position 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 during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 4.6% in the third quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 6,819,124 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $432,946,000 after buying an additional 302,212 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 14.2% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,639,296 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $358,039,000 after buying an additional 699,297 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 5.2% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,001,848 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $127,097,000 after purchasing an additional 98,500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 3.7% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,748,610 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $111,019,000 after purchasing an additional 62,917 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

W. R. Berkley Stock Down 1.6 %

WRB opened at $76.65 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $84.26 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $76.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The company has a market capitalization of $19.66 billion, a PE ratio of 13.59, a PEG ratio of 1.45 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.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The insurance provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $2.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 21.01% and a net margin of 12.23%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.00 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 4th were paid a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.57%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 1st. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 7.80%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on WRB. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $99.00 to $94.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $83.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $81.00 to $93.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of W. R. Berkley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $90.63.

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.