GAMMA Investing LLC Raises Stock Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 8,709.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 671,893 shares of the insurance provider's stock after buying an additional 664,266 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC owned 0.18% of W. R. Berkley worth $47,812,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in W. R. Berkley by 1.5% during the 4th 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 period. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 11,722,476 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $685,999,000 after purchasing an additional 116,957 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,694,703 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $449,168,000 after acquiring an additional 103,350 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 55.1% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $417,897,000 after acquiring an additional 2,616,227 shares during the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 15.2% during the 4th 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 own 68.82% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on WRB. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Bank of America reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $74.00 price objective (up previously from $73.00) on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, May 19th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $70.64.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

NYSE:WRB traded up $0.24 on Friday, hitting $74.11. The company had a trading volume of 174,165 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,754,894. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52 week low of $51.17 and a 52 week high of $76.38. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $71.00 and a two-hundred day moving average of $64.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.97, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.44.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last issued its 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). The company had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.01 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.83% and a net margin of 12.88%. On average, research analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

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.