Agate Pass Investment Management LLC Acquires 485 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Agate Pass Investment Management LLC lifted its position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 1.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 38,243 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 485 shares during the quarter. Agate Pass Investment Management LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $2,238,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 373.5% during the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 6,014 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $471,000 after purchasing an additional 4,744 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 6.3% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 351,146 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $27,593,000 after buying an additional 20,687 shares during the period. Qsemble Capital Management LP purchased a new position in W. R. Berkley during the second quarter worth about $324,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 85,261 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $6,729,000 after acquiring an additional 270 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 2.4% in the second quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd now owns 84,231 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $6,619,000 after purchasing an additional 1,986 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WRB has been the subject of a number of research reports. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Barclays reduced their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $56.00 to $50.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of W. R. Berkley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.82.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 0.7 %

NYSE:WRB traded up $0.40 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $57.10. The company had a trading volume of 568,094 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,462,822. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $60.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $58.33. The company has a market capitalization of $21.76 billion, a PE ratio of 14.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 0.67. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52 week low of $48.48 and a 52 week high of $65.49.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share (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 analysts’ expectations 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 quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.