Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC Increases Stock Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 59.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,340 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,988 shares during the period. Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $306,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Greenwood Capital Associates LLC bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter valued at $420,000. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter worth about $202,000. Nomura Holdings Inc. bought a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $291,000. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda grew its stake in W. R. Berkley by 268.2% during the fourth quarter. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda now owns 1,576 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $111,000 after acquiring an additional 1,148 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 1,157,290 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $102,351,000 after purchasing an additional 5,407 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WRB has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. TD Cowen assumed coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research note on Monday, July 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $68.67 target price on the stock. Barclays assumed coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 price target for the company. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $66.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $61.31.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 0.6 %

NYSE WRB traded down $0.34 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $58.92. 1,808,629 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,760,821. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $57.85 and a two-hundred day moving average of $55.47. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12-month low of $41.82 and a 12-month high of $61.28. The firm has a market cap of $22.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.78, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.38 and a quick ratio of 0.38.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The insurance provider reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $3.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.84 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 21.34% and a net margin of 12.05%. W. R. Berkley’s quarterly revenue was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.14 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.02 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 23rd were paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 8.51%.

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.