National Wealth Management Group LLC Invests $336,000 in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

National Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 5,921 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $336,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 53.6% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 737,472 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $41,837,000 after buying an additional 257,211 shares during the last quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP bought a new stake in W. R. Berkley during the 3rd quarter valued at $732,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new position in W. R. Berkley during the 2nd quarter worth $4,801,000. Atria Investments Inc grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 49.9% in the third quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 92,574 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $5,252,000 after purchasing an additional 30,833 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Markel Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 50.0% during the third quarter. Markel Group Inc. now owns 60,750 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $3,446,000 after purchasing an additional 20,250 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $64.94 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $59.12 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.64, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52-week low of $45.75 and a 52-week high of $65.49.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. The business 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 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. W. R. Berkley’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.90 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were issued 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 0.49%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.20%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WRB has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. StockNews.com lowered shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Bank of America upped their target price on W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $64.22.

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.