Xponance Inc. Purchases 717 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Xponance Inc. raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 1.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 42,144 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 717 shares during the period. Xponance Inc.’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $2,466,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of WRB. Whipplewood Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in W. R. Berkley during the fourth quarter valued at $35,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter valued at about $42,000. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the 3rd quarter valued at about $48,000. Tortoise Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 69.9% in the 4th quarter. Tortoise Investment Management LLC now owns 1,313 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $77,000 after acquiring an additional 540 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. bought a new stake in W. R. Berkley during the fourth quarter worth approximately $79,000. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com lowered W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $65.00 price target for the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of 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 restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $63.00 target price on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $64.36.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of WRB stock opened at $63.21 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $23.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.49, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.63. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $60.99 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $59.92. W. R. Berkley Co. has a one year low of $50.73 and a one year high of $65.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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, equities analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.51%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend 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.