Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Grows Stock Holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 44.8% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 11,796 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,647 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $669,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of WRB. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 0.7% during the second quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,553,875 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $593,584,000 after acquiring an additional 54,530 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 211.3% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $208,436,000 after purchasing an additional 2,493,758 shares during the period. APG Asset Management N.V. boosted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 2,698,311 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $197,838,000 after acquiring an additional 92,242 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,037,599 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $160,128,000 after buying an additional 139,588 shares in the last quarter. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,929,931 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $151,654,000 after buying an additional 26,464 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have commented on WRB shares. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Barclays assumed coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 price target on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $64.22.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 0.2 %

NYSE:WRB opened at $63.63 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.32, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 0.65. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1-year low of $45.75 and a 1-year high of $65.49. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $59.82 and its 200-day moving average price is $57.14. 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 posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The company’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.90 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.94 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 23rd were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 8.21%.

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.