Davis Capital Management Grows Stock Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Davis Capital Management raised its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 49.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 958 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 319 shares during the quarter. Davis Capital Management’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $54,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. NEOS Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter worth approximately $204,000. Rafferty Asset Management LLC increased its position in W. R. Berkley by 5.8% during the fourth quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 72,210 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $5,107,000 after buying an additional 3,933 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 11.2% in the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 30,128 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,131,000 after acquiring an additional 3,023 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 2,064.8% in the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 269,817 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $19,081,000 after acquiring an additional 257,353 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cibc World Markets Corp boosted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 44.8% during the fourth quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp now owns 47,313 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $3,346,000 after acquiring an additional 14,639 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $88.00 to $83.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 13th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $59.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Barclays assumed coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 target price for the company. Finally, StockNews.com lowered W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $77.70.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

NYSE:WRB opened at $57.63 on Thursday. W. R. Berkley Co. has a fifty-two week low of $41.37 and a fifty-two week high of $61.28. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $57.30 and its two-hundred day moving average is $71.51. The company has a market cap of $22.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a quick ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The insurance provider reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.12. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 21.34% and a net margin of 12.05%. The firm had revenue of $3.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.84 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.14 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.03 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 8.51%.

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.