W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) was the recipient of a significant drop in short interest during the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,490,000 shares, a drop of 23.9% from the October 15th total of 5,900,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,770,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.5 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on WRB. StockNews.com upgraded W. R. Berkley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.08.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 2,459,073 shares in the last quarter. Insight Inv LLC raised its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 49.8% in the 3rd quarter. Insight Inv LLC now owns 30,706 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,742,000 after purchasing an additional 10,211 shares during the period. Vestcor Inc raised its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 41.7% in the 3rd quarter. Vestcor Inc now owns 22,387 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,270,000 after purchasing an additional 6,588 shares during the period. Resources Management Corp CT ADV raised its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 84.1% in the 3rd quarter. Resources Management Corp CT ADV now owns 28,267 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,604,000 after purchasing an additional 12,911 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 78.6% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,469,608 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $83,372,000 after purchasing an additional 646,973 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

WRB stock traded up $1.09 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $60.74. 2,073,983 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,006,367. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $58.46 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $56.18. W. R. Berkley has a 1-year low of $45.75 and a 1-year high of $61.96. The company has a market cap of $23.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.56, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.90 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley will post 3.96 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were given a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.53%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.20%.

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.