Moody Lynn & Lieberson LLC Has $675,000 Stock Holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Moody Lynn & Lieberson LLC boosted its position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 26.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 11,542 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,433 shares during the period. Moody Lynn & Lieberson LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $675,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 48.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $857,814,000 after buying an additional 4,947,830 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 51.0% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 11,321,958 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $642,294,000 after acquiring an additional 3,825,238 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 55.1% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $417,897,000 after acquiring an additional 2,616,227 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 211.3% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $208,436,000 after purchasing an additional 2,493,758 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 47.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,591,353 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $429,266,000 after purchasing an additional 2,459,073 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of W. R. Berkley stock opened at $57.51 on Friday. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52-week low of $50.73 and a 52-week high of $65.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $60.10 and its 200 day simple moving average is $58.53. The firm has a market cap of $21.91 billion, a PE ratio of 14.73, a P/E/G ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 0.67.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 8.21%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on WRB shares. UBS Group upped their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $65.00 price target on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $67.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.74.

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.