Mather Group LLC. Purchases 1,756 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Mather Group LLC. raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 44.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 5,687 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,756 shares during the quarter. Mather Group LLC.’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $323,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,439,361 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,161,417,000 after acquiring an additional 195,763 shares in the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 0.7% during the second quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,553,875 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $593,584,000 after buying an additional 54,530 shares during the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 3.5% in the 2nd quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 2,698,311 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $197,838,000 after buying an additional 92,242 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 7.4% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,037,599 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $160,128,000 after buying an additional 139,588 shares during the last quarter. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,929,931 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $151,654,000 after acquiring an additional 26,464 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on WRB shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Barclays started coverage on W. R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 price target on the stock. TD Cowen initiated coverage on W. R. Berkley in a report on Monday, July 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $68.67 price objective for the company. Bank of America increased their target price on W. R. Berkley from $65.00 to $73.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $60.89.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

NYSE:WRB opened at $58.11 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $22.28 billion, a PE ratio of 15.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a quick ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $57.69 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $55.50. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52 week low of $41.82 and a 52 week high of $61.28.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The insurance provider reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $3.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.84 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 21.34% and a net margin of 12.05%. The firm’s revenue was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.14 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 23rd were issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.51%.

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.