W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Stock Holdings Boosted by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 211.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,493,758 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.96% of W. R. Berkley worth $208,436,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of WRB. Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new stake in W. R. Berkley during the 2nd quarter valued at $4,801,000. Prudential PLC lifted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 205.9% in the second quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 68,526 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $5,385,000 after purchasing an additional 46,125 shares during the period. Stoneridge Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in W. R. Berkley in the 2nd quarter valued at about $3,245,000. CHB Investment Group LLC acquired a new position in W. R. Berkley during the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,880,000. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 25.6% during the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 49,310 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,875,000 after buying an additional 10,053 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on WRB shares. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on 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. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. StockNews.com lowered W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Truist Financial increased their price objective 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 research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 1.7 %

WRB opened at $59.62 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $58.39 and a 200 day simple moving average of $55.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.38 and a quick ratio of 0.38. The company has a market cap of $22.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 0.62. W. R. Berkley Co. has a fifty-two week low of $44.88 and a fifty-two week high of $61.96.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.91%. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. 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 Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.54%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.20%.

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.