Mendota Financial Group LLC Has $33,000 Holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Mendota Financial Group LLC lowered its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 46.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 557 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 485 shares during the period. Mendota Financial Group LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $33,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wedmont Private Capital lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 8,038 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $456,000 after purchasing an additional 181 shares in the last quarter. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. increased its stake in W. R. Berkley by 49.9% in the 2nd quarter. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. now owns 580 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 193 shares during the last quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 51.0% during the 3rd quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 619 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 209 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 12,879 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,012,000 after buying an additional 212 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 12.2% in the second quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 2,173 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $171,000 after acquiring an additional 236 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Barclays lowered their target price on W. R. Berkley from $56.00 to $50.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $67.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.74.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of WRB stock opened at $58.54 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $60.30 and its 200 day moving average is $58.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.00, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 0.67. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12 month low of $48.48 and a 12 month high of $65.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.90 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders 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 0.55%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is presently 8.21%.

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.