Benjamin Edwards Inc. Acquires 139,450 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Benjamin Edwards Inc. boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 6,417.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 141,623 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 139,450 shares during the period. Benjamin Edwards Inc.’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $8,034,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Quarry LP acquired a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the 2nd quarter valued at $42,000. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 49.9% in the second quarter. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. now owns 580 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 193 shares during the last quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 51.0% in the third quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 619 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 209 shares during the period. PFS Partners LLC boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 51.1% during the third quarter. PFS Partners LLC now owns 719 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 243 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mascoma Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley during the 2nd quarter worth about $62,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 1.4 %

NYSE WRB opened at $63.65 on Tuesday. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52 week low of $45.75 and a 52 week high of $65.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $59.54 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $57.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.31, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 0.62.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.90 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 8.20%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WRB has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Barclays started coverage on W. R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 price target for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $64.22.

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.