Whipplewood Advisors LLC Invests $35,000 in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Whipplewood Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 600 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $35,000.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp lifted 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 valued at $857,814,000 after acquiring an additional 4,947,830 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 51.0% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 11,321,958 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $642,294,000 after purchasing an additional 3,825,238 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in W. R. Berkley by 47.9% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,591,353 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $429,266,000 after buying an additional 2,459,073 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in 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 buying an additional 2,616,227 shares during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 104.1% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,154,783 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $235,701,000 after buying an additional 2,118,641 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WRB has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Morgan Stanley started coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $65.00 price objective for the company. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $63.00 target price on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of W. R. Berkley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $64.36.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 1.6 %

WRB opened at $63.14 on Friday. 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 fifty-two week low of $50.73 and a fifty-two week high of $65.49. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $59.59 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $59.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.47, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.67.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. As a group, research analysts predict that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.51%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.34%.

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.