Leavell Investment Management Inc. Purchases 10,648 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Leavell Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 51.7% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 31,232 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,648 shares during the quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $1,772,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Empirical Finance LLC grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 3.6% in the first quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 7,045 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $623,000 after purchasing an additional 245 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the first quarter worth $595,000. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 201.3% during the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 34,963 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $3,092,000 after buying an additional 23,358 shares during the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. bought a new stake in W. R. Berkley during the 1st quarter valued at $201,000. Finally, Forsta AP Fonden grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 17.1% in the 1st quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 47,900 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $4,236,000 after acquiring an additional 7,000 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on WRB shares. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. StockNews.com lowered W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Barclays began coverage on W. R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 target price for the company. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of WRB opened at $60.55 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $58.40 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $55.88. W. R. Berkley Co. has a fifty-two week low of $44.88 and a fifty-two week high of $61.96. The stock has a market cap of $23.07 billion, a PE ratio of 15.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a current ratio of 0.36.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.41%. W. R. Berkley’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. Analysts anticipate 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 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 of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.53%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.21%.

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.