Avior Wealth Management LLC Buys 2,625 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Avior Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 50.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 7,822 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,625 shares during the period. Avior Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $444,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of WRB. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,553,875 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $593,584,000 after acquiring an additional 54,530 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 211.3% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $208,436,000 after purchasing an additional 2,493,758 shares in the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 2,698,311 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $197,838,000 after purchasing an additional 92,242 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,037,599 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $160,128,000 after buying an additional 139,588 shares in the last quarter. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,929,931 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $151,654,000 after buying an additional 26,464 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. UBS Group boosted their price target on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 2.0 %

WRB stock opened at $62.14 on Friday. W. R. Berkley Co. has a twelve month low of $45.75 and a twelve month high of $62.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $58.60 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $56.36.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.51%. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 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.