W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Shares Acquired by Corbyn Investment Management Inc. MD

Corbyn Investment Management Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 49.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 130,065 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 43,189 shares during the period. W. R. Berkley accounts for approximately 2.8% of Corbyn Investment Management Inc. MD’s holdings, making the stock its 12th biggest position. Corbyn Investment Management Inc. MD’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $7,379,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of WRB. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew 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 during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 58.2% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,333,418 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $75,645,000 after buying an additional 490,669 shares during the last quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of 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 valued at $77,340,000 after buying an additional 439,853 shares during the last quarter. Boston Financial Mangement LLC grew its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 316,269 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 49.9% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 911,062 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $51,685,000 after buying an additional 303,287 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on WRB. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Barclays initiated coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 target price for the company. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price target 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 1.8 %

WRB stock opened at $60.74 on Monday. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12 month low of $45.75 and a 12 month high of $61.96. The firm has a market cap of $23.15 billion, a PE ratio of 15.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.62. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $58.46 and a 200 day simple moving average of $56.18. 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 released its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 EPS 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 business had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.90 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors 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 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio 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.