Meitav Investment House Ltd. Buys 2,475 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Meitav Investment House Ltd. grew its position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 50.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 7,425 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,475 shares during the quarter. Meitav Investment House Ltd.’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $440,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 51.0% during the 3rd quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 619 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 209 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP purchased a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the second quarter valued at $42,000. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. increased its position in W. R. Berkley by 49.9% in the second quarter. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. now owns 580 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 193 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd raised its stake in W. R. Berkley by 173.0% during the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 546 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 346 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raleigh Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 45.6% during the third quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 843 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 264 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on WRB. Evercore ISI raised their price target on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Truist Financial raised their price target on W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Barclays started coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 price target for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $57.19 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $58.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $55.67. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12 month low of $44.24 and a 12 month high of $61.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.21, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.38 and a quick ratio of 0.38.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 21.34% and a net margin of 12.05%. W. R. Berkley’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.90 EPS. Analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.02 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.56%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.51%.

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.