Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. Acquires Shares of 16,780 W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. purchased a new stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 16,780 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $982,000.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of WRB. Longboard Asset Management LP acquired a new position in W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter worth approximately $232,000. Financial Strategies Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Financial Strategies Group Inc. now owns 119,327 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $6,766,000 after acquiring an additional 4,363 shares during the period. Spire Wealth Management boosted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1,095.9% in the 4th quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 4,915 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $288,000 after purchasing an additional 4,504 shares during the last quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 41.0% during the 4th quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 17,611 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,031,000 after acquiring an additional 5,124 shares during the period. Finally, SeaBridge Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. SeaBridge Investment Advisors LLC now owns 27,044 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,583,000 after buying an additional 1,263 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of W. R. Berkley stock opened at $59.55 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $59.88 and its 200-day simple moving average is $58.56. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52 week low of $50.73 and a 52 week high of $65.49. The company has a market capitalization of $22.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.65, a PEG ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 0.67.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. As a group, analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.33%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on WRB. The Goldman Sachs Group raised W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Barclays boosted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Morgan Stanley began coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $65.00 price objective on the stock. Truist Financial lifted their target price 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, Bank of America boosted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $64.36.

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.