Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc. Buys Shares of 2,158 W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 2,158 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $123,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in WRB. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 211.3% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $208,436,000 after buying an additional 2,493,758 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 104.1% during the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,154,783 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $235,701,000 after buying an additional 2,118,641 shares during the period. EULAV Asset Management grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 50.0% during the 3rd quarter. EULAV Asset Management now owns 1,564,890 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $88,776,000 after buying an additional 521,630 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 58.2% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,333,418 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $75,645,000 after buying an additional 490,669 shares during the period. Finally, Confluence Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 47.6% during the 3rd quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 1,363,295 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $77,340,000 after buying an additional 439,853 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on WRB shares. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Barclays assumed coverage on W. R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 target price on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Truist Financial increased their target price on W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $64.22.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WRB opened at $64.94 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $24.75 billion, a PE ratio of 16.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.62. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1-year low of $45.75 and a 1-year 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. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $59.12 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $56.73.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its 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 analysts’ expectations 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 revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.90 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 8.20%.

W. R. Berkley 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.