AlphaCore Capital LLC Buys New Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

AlphaCore Capital LLC purchased a new position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 3,611 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $205,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of WRB. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 2,493,758 shares in the last quarter. EULAV Asset Management lifted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 50.0% during the third quarter. EULAV Asset Management now owns 1,564,890 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $88,776,000 after purchasing an additional 521,630 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates boosted its position 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 worth $75,645,000 after purchasing an additional 490,669 shares during the period. Confluence Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 47.6% in the third quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 1,363,295 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $77,340,000 after purchasing an additional 439,853 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parnassus Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 44.7% in the third quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 1,134,214 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $64,344,000 after purchasing an additional 350,145 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently weighed in on WRB shares. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Bank of America boosted 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. StockNews.com cut W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and five have issued 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 Price Performance

W. R. Berkley stock opened at $62.27 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $58.69 and its 200 day moving average is $56.40. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The company has a market cap of $23.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.97, a PEG ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 0.62. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52-week low of $45.75 and a 52-week high of $62.54.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. The company 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.90 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 8.21%.

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.