Metis Global Partners LLC Has $875,000 Stock Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Metis Global Partners LLC boosted its position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 58.9% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 15,422 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 5,715 shares during the quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $875,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 0.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,439,361 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,161,417,000 after acquiring an additional 195,763 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC raised its stake in W. R. Berkley by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,553,875 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $593,584,000 after purchasing an additional 54,530 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 211.3% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $208,436,000 after purchasing an additional 2,493,758 shares during the period. APG Asset Management N.V. grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 3.5% in the 2nd quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 2,698,311 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $197,838,000 after purchasing an additional 92,242 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings 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 worth $160,128,000 after purchasing an additional 139,588 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on WRB. StockNews.com upgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. UBS Group raised 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. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on shares of 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of W. R. Berkley stock opened at $60.74 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.62. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12-month low of $45.75 and a 12-month high of $61.96. 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 company has a 50-day simple moving average of $58.46 and a 200 day simple moving average of $56.18.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced 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 return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.90 EPS. W. R. Berkley’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 0.53%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.20%.

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.