Farther Finance Advisors LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 132.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,638 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 4,924 shares during the quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $607,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WRB. Optiver Holding B.V. increased its position in W. R. Berkley by 107.3% during the 4th quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 427 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 221 shares in the last quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC acquired a new position in W. R. Berkley during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in W. R. Berkley during the fourth quarter worth approximately $37,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter worth $42,000. Finally, Colonial Trust Co SC raised its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 79.9% in the 4th quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC now owns 822 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $48,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on WRB. Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and set a $74.00 price objective (up previously from $73.00) on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Barclays upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 19th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $70.64.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 0.8%

NYSE WRB opened at $73.17 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $27.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12 month low of $51.41 and a 12 month high of $76.38. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $71.66 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $64.99.

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

W. R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 23rd will be issued a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. This is an increase from W. R. Berkley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 7.42%.

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.