Oak Thistle LLC Grows Stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Oak Thistle LLC increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 130.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 8,725 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,944 shares during the quarter. Oak Thistle LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $511,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of WRB stock opened at $60.35 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $60.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $58.43. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52-week low of $48.69 and a 52-week high of $65.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 0.67.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion during 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%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.95 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.53%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.21%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $67.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.74.

W. R. Berkley Company 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.