Axxcess Wealth Management LLC Buys 1,984 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Axxcess Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 46.9% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 6,216 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,984 shares during the period. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $353,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WRB. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 211.3% in 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 in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 58.2% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,333,418 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $75,645,000 after purchasing an additional 490,669 shares in the last quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 47.6% during the third quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 1,363,295 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $77,340,000 after purchasing an additional 439,853 shares during the last quarter. Boston Financial Mangement LLC grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 47.1% in the third quarter. Boston Financial Mangement LLC now owns 987,823 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $56,039,000 after purchasing an additional 316,269 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Berkley W R Corp acquired a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the 2nd quarter valued at $21,138,000. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on WRB. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

NYSE:WRB opened at $60.25 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $58.42 and its 200 day moving average is $56.03. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12 month low of $45.30 and a 12 month high of $61.96. The company has a market capitalization of $22.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 company had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The firm’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were given a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.53%. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 8.21%.

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.