Geller Advisors LLC Invests $552,000 in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Geller Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 9,430 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $552,000.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wedmont Private Capital boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 8,038 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $456,000 after acquiring an additional 181 shares during the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 5,289 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $310,000 after buying an additional 188 shares during the period. Optiver Holding B.V. grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 107.3% in the fourth quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 427 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 221 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 15,632 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $915,000 after purchasing an additional 235 shares during the period. Finally, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 13,631 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $773,000 after acquiring an additional 242 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on WRB shares. Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $74.00 price objective (up from $73.00) on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. 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 target price on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $68.39.

W. R. Berkley Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $72.47 on Friday. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1 year low of $51.17 and a 1 year high of $76.38. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $67.52 and its 200-day simple moving average is $62.68. 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 $27.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.61, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.44.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.01 billion. 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 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 7.42%.

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.