OLD Mission Capital LLC Acquires New Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

OLD Mission Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 32,012 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,873,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,694,703 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $449,168,000 after acquiring an additional 103,350 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 61.6% during the 4th quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 399,854 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $23,400,000 after purchasing an additional 152,399 shares during the period. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC raised its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 12.0% during 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 last quarter. Skba Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. Skba Capital Management LLC now owns 9,327 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $546,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the period. Finally, O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 15.1% in the fourth quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 54,117 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,167,000 after buying an additional 7,084 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on WRB. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on W. R. Berkley from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $63.00 price target on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Barclays raised their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Bank of America reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $74.00 target price (up from $73.00) on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $65.00 price target on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $64.21.

W. R. Berkley Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $69.73 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $26.44 billion, a PE ratio of 15.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12-month low of $50.73 and a 12-month high of $76.38. The company has a 50-day moving average of $62.37 and a 200 day moving average of $60.43.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.83% and a net margin of 12.88%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 7.34%.

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.