Anchor Investment Management LLC Purchases Shares of 1,545 W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Anchor Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 1,545 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $88,000.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. grew its stake in W. R. Berkley by 51.0% in the third quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 619 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 209 shares during the period. PFS Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 51.1% in the 3rd quarter. PFS Partners LLC now owns 719 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 243 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the 2nd quarter valued at $42,000. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV increased its stake in W. R. Berkley by 108.1% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 801 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 416 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. increased its stake in W. R. Berkley by 49.9% during the 2nd quarter. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. now owns 580 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. StockNews.com upgraded W. R. Berkley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $64.28.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of WRB stock opened at $60.76 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36. The firm has a market cap of $23.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 0.65. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52 week low of $45.75 and a 52 week high of $65.49. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $60.45 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $57.54.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.90 earnings per share. W. R. Berkley’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 16th. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.20%.

W. R. Berkley Company 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.