W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Shares Bought by Firethorn Wealth Partners LLC

Firethorn Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 60.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,574 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,722 shares during the period. Firethorn Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $259,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 83.0% during the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,180,413 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $92,757,000 after purchasing an additional 535,471 shares during the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. raised its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 190.4% during the 1st quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 477,774 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $42,254,000 after buying an additional 313,234 shares during the period. Berkley W R Corp purchased a new stake in W. R. Berkley during the second quarter valued at about $21,138,000. WINTON GROUP Ltd acquired a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the second quarter worth about $18,482,000. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 66.6% in the second quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 490,935 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $38,578,000 after acquiring an additional 196,263 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on WRB. TD Cowen began coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Monday, July 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $68.67 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. UBS Group upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $66.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Truist Financial raised their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $61.31.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

WRB stock opened at $59.30 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $58.00 and a two-hundred day moving average of $55.50. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12 month low of $41.82 and a 12 month high of $61.28. The company has a market capitalization of $22.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a quick ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 22nd. The insurance provider reported $1.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.12. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.05% and a return on equity of 21.34%. The firm had revenue of $3.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.84 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.14 earnings per share. W. R. Berkley’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 23rd were paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 8.51%.

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.