Advisory Alpha LLC Buys Shares of 5,283 W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Advisory Alpha LLC bought a new stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 5,283 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $388,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Czech National Bank raised its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 6.3% during the 2nd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 73,255 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $5,382,000 after buying an additional 4,336 shares during the last quarter. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec raised its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 70.8% during the 1st quarter. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec now owns 17,197 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,224,000 after buying an additional 7,131 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 737,183 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $54,161,000 after buying an additional 4,423 shares during the last quarter. Gallacher Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley during the 2nd quarter worth $323,000. Finally, Sciencast Management LP acquired a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley during the 1st quarter worth $3,493,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W.R. Berkley Stock Down 1.7%

Shares of NYSE:WRB opened at $71.35 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a current ratio of 0.37. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 1 year low of $55.97 and a 1 year high of $78.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.99, a PEG ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.42. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $74.11 and a 200-day simple moving average of $72.30.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its earnings results on Monday, October 20th. The insurance provider reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.03. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 19.35% and a net margin of 13.01%.The business had revenue of $3.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.16 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.93 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 22nd. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. W.R. Berkley’s payout ratio is presently 7.56%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on WRB. UBS Group set a $87.00 target price on shares of W.R. Berkley and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Cantor Fitzgerald set a $78.00 price target on W.R. Berkley in a report on Monday. Truist Financial set a $84.00 price target on W.R. Berkley and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, Barclays restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $73.00 price target on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, W.R. Berkley has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $74.46.

About W.R. Berkley

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.