Merit Financial Group LLC Grows Stock Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Merit Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 83.2% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 17,532 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,961 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $1,248,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WRB. Amundi raised its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 43.1% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 1,477,932 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $85,853,000 after buying an additional 444,986 shares during the period. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC raised its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 12.0% in the 4th quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC now owns 4,967 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $304,000 after buying an additional 532 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 55.1% in 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 period. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 75.6% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 50,503 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,955,000 after acquiring an additional 21,737 shares during the period. Finally, Savant Capital LLC raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 7.3% in the fourth quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 13,245 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $775,000 after purchasing an additional 901 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WRB has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered W. R. Berkley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $74.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Bank of America reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $74.00 price objective (up previously from $73.00) on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 19th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $70.64.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 0.5%

WRB opened at $74.23 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $28.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.01, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.42. W. R. Berkley Co. has a one year low of $51.17 and a one year high of $76.38. 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 $71.08 and its 200-day simple moving average is $64.66.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $3.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.01 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.