Los Angeles Capital Management LLC Purchases 352,825 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 44.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,151,883 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 352,825 shares during the quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC owned 0.45% of W. R. Berkley worth $81,461,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. EULAV Asset Management boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 4.4% in the third quarter. EULAV Asset Management now owns 945,260 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $60,015,000 after acquiring an additional 39,716 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at about $8,970,000. NatWest Group plc bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at about $8,791,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at about $870,000. Finally, Financial Strategies Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 29.6% in the fourth quarter. Financial Strategies Group Inc. now owns 53,112 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $4,126,000 after acquiring an additional 12,140 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WRB has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $81.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $86.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $88.00 to $86.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $93.00 to $87.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $90.63.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of WRB stock traded up $1.19 on Thursday, reaching $78.97. The company had a trading volume of 580,783 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,261,852. The business’s 50-day moving average is $83.94 and its 200 day moving average is $76.69. W. R. Berkley Co. has a one year low of $55.50 and a one year high of $89.18. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.26 billion, a PE ratio of 13.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 0.60.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The insurance provider reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.10. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 21.01% and a net margin of 12.23%. The company had revenue of $2.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.00 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 5.87 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 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 4th were paid a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 1st. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.80%.

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.