Nisa Investment Advisors LLC Raises Holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 79.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 222,349 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 98,381 shares during the quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $12,614,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Quarry LP acquired a new position in W. R. Berkley during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $42,000. Covestor Ltd lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 173.0% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 546 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 346 shares during the last quarter. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 49.9% during the second quarter. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. now owns 580 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. raised 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Evermay Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in W. R. Berkley during the 1st quarter worth about $65,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on WRB. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. StockNews.com lowered shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Barclays began coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 price objective for the company. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 0.7 %

NYSE:WRB opened at $58.02 on Thursday. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12-month low of $44.24 and a 12-month high of $61.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $58.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $55.66. The firm has a market cap of $22.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.43, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.62.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.05% and a return on equity of 21.34%. The company had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.90 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.02 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.55%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.