Firethorn Wealth Partners LLC Buys 1,722 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Firethorn Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 60.4% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 4,574 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,722 shares during the period. Firethorn Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $259,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of WRB. Vontobel Holding Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the third quarter valued at about $202,000. Griffin Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 50.0% during the 3rd quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. now owns 53,218 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,019,000 after acquiring an additional 17,739 shares during the period. Applied Capital LLC FL increased its stake in W. R. Berkley by 48.2% in the third quarter. Applied Capital LLC FL now owns 29,512 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,674,000 after acquiring an additional 9,605 shares during the period. Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 59.3% in the third quarter. Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC now owns 5,340 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $306,000 after purchasing an additional 1,988 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 50.0% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 14,766 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $838,000 after purchasing an additional 4,922 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on WRB. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $57.00 price target on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Barclays initiated coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 price objective for the company. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $66.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, TD Cowen started coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Monday, July 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $68.67 target price on the stock. One 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 MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $61.31.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of WRB stock opened at $59.30 on Thursday. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1 year low of $41.82 and a 1 year high of $61.28. 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 firm’s 50 day moving average is $58.00 and its 200-day moving average is $55.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.77, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.62.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 22nd. The insurance provider reported $1.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $3.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.84 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 21.34% and a net margin of 12.05%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.14 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 23rd were given 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 0.54%. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 8.51%.

W. R. Berkley Company 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.