Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC Raises Stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 77.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 13,389 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 5,841 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $760,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of WRB. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. grew its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 209 shares during the period. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the 2nd quarter valued at about $42,000. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 49.9% during the 2nd quarter. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. now owns 580 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 193 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd lifted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 346 shares during the period. Finally, Raleigh Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 45.6% in the third quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 843 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $48,000 after acquiring an additional 264 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WRB has been the subject of several research reports. Evercore ISI boosted 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 note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. StockNews.com cut W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 4.2 %

WRB opened at $60.64 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a current ratio of 0.38. The firm has a market cap of $23.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.55, a PEG ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 0.62. W. R. Berkley Co. has a twelve month low of $44.88 and a twelve month high of $61.96. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $58.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $55.79.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.91% 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 period in the previous year, the company earned $0.90 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company 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 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is 8.21%.

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.