SRS Capital Advisors Inc. Buys 1,135 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

SRS Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 121.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 2,066 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,135 shares during the period. SRS Capital Advisors Inc.’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $121,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in WRB. State Street Corp grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 48.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $857,814,000 after acquiring an additional 4,947,830 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 51.0% in 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 last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 55.1% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $417,897,000 after purchasing an additional 2,616,227 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 211.3% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $208,436,000 after purchasing an additional 2,493,758 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 47.9% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,591,353 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $429,266,000 after purchasing an additional 2,459,073 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on WRB shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Thursday, December 5th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $65.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $64.36.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 0.6 %

WRB opened at $62.61 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.35, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.63. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $59.85 and a 200-day moving average price of $59.56. W. R. Berkley Co. has a twelve month low of $50.73 and a twelve month high of $65.49. 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 earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. Equities research analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company 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 is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.51%. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 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.