American Trust Makes New Investment in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

American Trust acquired a new stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 25,137 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,847,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Baird Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in W.R. Berkley by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 7,997 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $569,000 after purchasing an additional 141 shares in the last quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 4.4% in the second quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC now owns 3,721 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $273,000 after buying an additional 158 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its stake in W.R. Berkley by 4.7% during the second quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 3,616 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $266,000 after buying an additional 161 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group grew its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 19.0% during the first quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 1,013 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $72,000 after acquiring an additional 162 shares during the period. Finally, Checchi Capital Advisers LLC raised its position in W.R. Berkley by 4.0% in the second quarter. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC now owns 4,334 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $318,000 after acquiring an additional 165 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on WRB. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $76.00 to $75.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Barclays restated an “underweight” rating and set a $73.00 target price on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $87.00 price target on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Friday, November 7th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $80.00 target price on W.R. Berkley in a report on Monday, November 17th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $74.85.

W.R. Berkley Trading Down 0.1%

NYSE WRB opened at $69.27 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $74.54 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $72.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a current ratio of 0.37. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a twelve month low of $55.97 and a twelve month high of $78.96. The stock has a market cap of $26.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.55, a PEG ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.37.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 20th. The insurance provider reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $3.77 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.16 billion. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 18.86% and a net margin of 13.01%.W.R. Berkley’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.93 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be issued a $0.09 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 15th. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.56%.

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.