Wedmont Private Capital Has $456,000 Stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Wedmont Private Capital lifted its holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 2.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 8,038 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 181 shares during the quarter. Wedmont Private Capital’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $456,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in WRB. State Street Corp boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 48.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $857,814,000 after acquiring an additional 4,947,830 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 51.0% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 11,321,958 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $642,294,000 after acquiring an additional 3,825,238 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 55.1% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $417,897,000 after buying an additional 2,616,227 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 2,493,758 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 47.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,591,353 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $429,266,000 after acquiring an additional 2,459,073 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased 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 research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on 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. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on W. R. Berkley in a report on Thursday, December 5th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $65.00 target price on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $67.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.74.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of WRB stock opened at $59.92 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. W. R. Berkley Co. has a one year low of $48.48 and a one year high of $65.49. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $60.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $58.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.83 billion, a PE ratio of 15.35, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 0.67.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.90 earnings per share. W. R. Berkley’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast 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 Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.53%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.21%.

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.