Raymond James Trust N.A. Buys 14,750 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Raymond James Trust N.A. increased its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 51.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 43,350 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 14,750 shares during the quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A.’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $2,459,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Shell Asset Management Co. purchased a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the first quarter valued at $388,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 95.4% during the 1st quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,430 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $392,000 after purchasing an additional 2,163 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 16.8% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 58,485 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $5,171,000 after purchasing an additional 8,427 shares during the period. Magnetar Financial LLC bought a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the first quarter worth about $756,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.6% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 274,112 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $24,243,000 after buying an additional 4,291 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Barclays initiated coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 price target for the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. StockNews.com cut shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of WRB opened at $62.27 on Friday. 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 company has a 50 day moving average price of $58.77 and a 200-day moving average price of $56.46. W. R. Berkley Co. has a fifty-two week low of $45.75 and a fifty-two week high of $62.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.73 billion, a PE ratio of 15.95, a PEG ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 0.62.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. The company had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.90 earnings per share. W. R. Berkley’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict 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 announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.51%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.20%.

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.