Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC Purchases Shares of 2,911 W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 2,911 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $170,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WRB. State Street Corp boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 48.6% in 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 in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its position in 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 valued at $642,294,000 after buying an additional 3,825,238 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in 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 valued at $417,897,000 after buying an additional 2,616,227 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position 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. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake 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 acquiring an additional 2,459,073 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on WRB. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $63.00 target price on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Morgan Stanley began coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $65.00 target price for the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $64.36.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 1.0 %

WRB opened at $61.01 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. The company has a market cap of $23.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.67. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $59.22 and a 200 day simple moving average of $59.25. W. R. Berkley Co. has a fifty-two week low of $50.73 and a fifty-two week high of $65.49.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.52%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.33%.

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.