Portside Wealth Group LLC Acquires 488 Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Portside Wealth Group LLC boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 11.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,641 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 488 shares during the period. Portside Wealth Group LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $330,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,436,473 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,132,262,000 after purchasing an additional 529,294 shares during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 11,722,476 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $685,999,000 after buying an additional 116,957 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in W. R. Berkley by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,694,703 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $449,168,000 after buying an additional 103,350 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 55.1% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $417,897,000 after acquiring an additional 2,616,227 shares during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 15.2% during the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,787,361 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $280,156,000 after acquiring an additional 632,578 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of W. R. Berkley stock opened at $73.77 on Friday. 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 12-month low of $51.17 and a 12-month high of $76.38. The company has a market capitalization of $27.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.91, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.44. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $71.00 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $64.54.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 firm had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.01 billion. On average, analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on WRB shares. The Goldman Sachs Group cut W. R. Berkley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $74.00 to $76.00 in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Truist Financial boosted their price target on W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. Finally, Bank of America reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $74.00 price objective (up previously from $73.00) on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $70.64.

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.