Diversify Wealth Management LLC Increases Stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Diversify Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 22.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 19,440 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,598 shares during the quarter. Diversify Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $1,102,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. MML Investors Services LLC lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 49.0% in the 3rd quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 39,035 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,214,000 after purchasing an additional 12,830 shares in the last quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP purchased a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the third quarter worth about $732,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 53.6% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 737,472 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $41,837,000 after buying an additional 257,211 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 104.1% during the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,154,783 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $235,701,000 after buying an additional 2,118,641 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $4,801,000. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on WRB. Truist Financial increased their target price on W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Morgan Stanley began coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $65.00 price target for the company. Finally, Bank of America upped 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 analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.74.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 1.3 %

WRB stock opened at $59.57 on Tuesday. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12 month low of $48.69 and a 12 month high of $65.49. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $60.27 and its 200 day moving average is $58.61. The company has a market capitalization of $22.70 billion, a PE ratio of 15.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 0.67. 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 (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 firm had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.90 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.95 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.20%.

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.