Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC Purchases Shares of 4,105 W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 4,105 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $233,000.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Quarry LP bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the second quarter worth $42,000. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 49.9% during the second quarter. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. now owns 580 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 193 shares during the last quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 51.0% during the third quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 619 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 209 shares during the last quarter. PFS Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 51.1% during the third quarter. PFS Partners LLC now owns 719 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 243 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mascoma Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the second quarter worth $62,000. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on WRB. StockNews.com upgraded W. R. Berkley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. UBS Group raised their price target on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Evercore ISI raised their price target on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $64.22.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 1.4 %

NYSE WRB opened at $63.65 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $24.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 0.62. 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 stock’s 50-day moving average is $59.54 and its 200-day moving average is $57.02. W. R. Berkley Co. has a one year low of $45.75 and a one year high of $65.49.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. W. R. Berkley’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.90 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.20%.

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.