Agate Pass Investment Management LLC Buys 485 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Agate Pass Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 1.3% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 38,243 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 485 shares during the period. Agate Pass Investment Management LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $2,238,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp raised its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 48.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $857,814,000 after acquiring an additional 4,947,830 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 51.0% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 11,321,958 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $642,294,000 after purchasing an additional 3,825,238 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 55.1% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $417,897,000 after purchasing an additional 2,616,227 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 211.3% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $208,436,000 after buying an additional 2,493,758 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 47.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,591,353 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $429,266,000 after buying an additional 2,459,073 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on WRB. Evercore ISI raised their target price 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. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, November 25th. UBS Group lifted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $56.00 to $50.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.82.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of WRB traded up $0.40 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $57.10. 568,094 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,462,822. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $60.30 and a 200-day moving average price of $58.33. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12-month low of $48.48 and a 12-month high of $65.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.63, a P/E/G ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 0.67.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.90 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 8.21%.

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.