GHP Investment Advisors Inc. Has $9.99 Million Stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

GHP Investment Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 54.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 176,004 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 62,202 shares during the quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $9,985,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 83.0% during the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,180,413 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $92,757,000 after acquiring an additional 535,471 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 58.2% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,333,418 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $75,645,000 after buying an additional 490,669 shares in the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. grew its stake in W. R. Berkley by 190.4% during the first quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 477,774 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $42,254,000 after buying an additional 313,234 shares during the last quarter. Berkley W R Corp acquired a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the second quarter worth approximately $21,138,000. Finally, WINTON GROUP Ltd bought a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the second quarter valued at approximately $18,482,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on WRB. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 1.9 %

Shares of W. R. Berkley stock traded down $1.15 during trading on Friday, hitting $58.16. 1,826,162 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,811,569. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.62. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $58.37 and its 200 day moving average price is $55.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.38 and a quick ratio of 0.38. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1-year low of $43.20 and a 1-year high of $61.96.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.05% and a return on equity of 21.34%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

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

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.