Stifel Financial Corp Purchases 121,770 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Stifel Financial Corp boosted its position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 15.9% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 889,563 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 121,770 shares during the quarter. Stifel Financial Corp’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $52,057,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Whipplewood Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter worth $35,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter worth about $42,000. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $59,000. Tortoise Investment Management LLC increased its position in W. R. Berkley by 69.9% during the 4th quarter. Tortoise Investment Management LLC now owns 1,313 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $77,000 after purchasing an additional 540 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. bought a new position in W. R. Berkley in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $79,000. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on WRB shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday. Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. StockNews.com cut shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $63.00 price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $66.90.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of WRB stock opened at $70.84 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $64.86 and a 200-day moving average of $61.55. The company has a market cap of $26.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.40. 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 Co. has a 52 week low of $50.73 and a 52 week high of $76.38.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by ($0.07). W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.83% and a net margin of 12.88%. The company had revenue of $3.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.01 billion. On average, equities 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.34%.

W. R. Berkley Profile

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.