Gotham Asset Management LLC Acquires 473 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Gotham Asset Management LLC increased its stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 3.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 13,800 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 473 shares during the quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $808,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,436,473 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,132,262,000 after buying an additional 529,294 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC raised its stake in W. R. Berkley by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 11,722,476 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $685,999,000 after acquiring an additional 116,957 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,694,703 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $449,168,000 after purchasing an additional 103,350 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 55.1% in the third 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 during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 15.2% in the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,787,361 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $280,156,000 after purchasing an additional 632,578 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently weighed in on WRB shares. StockNews.com raised shares of W. R. Berkley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 13th. Barclays boosted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $63.00 target price on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on W. R. Berkley from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $68.39.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 0.8%

NYSE WRB opened at $73.29 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $68.49 and a 200-day moving average price of $63.23. W. R. Berkley Co. has a one year low of $51.17 and a one year high of $76.38. 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 company has a market capitalization of $27.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.44.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.07). W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. The business had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.01 billion. As a group, equities analysts predict that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 7.42%.

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.