Wedbush Securities Inc. Has $988,000 Stock Holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Wedbush Securities Inc. grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 6.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 16,875 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,066 shares during the quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc.’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $988,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in WRB. Whipplewood Advisors LLC acquired a new position in W. R. Berkley during the fourth quarter worth $35,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the 4th quarter valued at about $42,000. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the 4th quarter valued at about $59,000. Tortoise Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 69.9% during the fourth quarter. Tortoise Investment Management LLC now owns 1,313 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $77,000 after purchasing an additional 540 shares during the period. Finally, Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. acquired a new position in W. R. Berkley during the fourth quarter worth approximately $79,000. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

NYSE:WRB opened at $65.53 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $24.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.02, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.40. W. R. Berkley Co. has a fifty-two week low of $50.73 and a fifty-two week high of $76.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $62.79 and a 200-day moving average price of $60.58.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.34%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $63.00 price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $65.13.

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.