W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Shares Purchased by NCM Capital Management LLC

NCM Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 50.0% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 11,259 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,753 shares during the quarter. NCM Capital Management LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $639,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.6% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 274,112 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $24,243,000 after buying an additional 4,291 shares during the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 96.8% during the 1st quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 6,006 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $531,000 after acquiring an additional 2,954 shares during the period. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the first quarter worth $871,000. Atria Investments Inc increased its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 0.4% during the first quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 50,637 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $4,478,000 after purchasing an additional 189 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 224.2% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 43,339 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,833,000 after purchasing an additional 29,970 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on WRB. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. StockNews.com raised W. R. Berkley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted 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 report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $64.22.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 0.6 %

NYSE WRB opened at $64.57 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $59.41 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $56.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36. W. R. Berkley Co. has a twelve month low of $45.75 and a twelve month high of $65.49. The stock has a market cap of $24.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.54, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 0.62.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.90 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.94 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were given a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.20%.

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.