Empirical Finance LLC Buys 3,508 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Empirical Finance LLC raised its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 53.5% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 10,065 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,508 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $571,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 211.3% during 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 last quarter. Raymond James & Associates raised its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 58.2% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,333,418 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $75,645,000 after acquiring an additional 490,669 shares during the last quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 47.6% during the 3rd quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 1,363,295 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $77,340,000 after acquiring an additional 439,853 shares during the last quarter. Boston Financial Mangement LLC increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 47.1% during the 3rd quarter. Boston Financial Mangement LLC now owns 987,823 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $56,039,000 after purchasing an additional 316,269 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Berkley W R Corp bought a new position in W. R. Berkley in the 2nd quarter valued at $21,138,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on WRB shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Barclays initiated coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 target price for the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective 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. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 1.8 %

NYSE:WRB opened at $60.74 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $58.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is $56.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12-month low of $45.75 and a 12-month high of $61.96.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. The company’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.90 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date 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 8.20%.

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.