Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Buys Shares of 96,988 W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 96,988 shares of the insurance provider's stock, valued at approximately $5,676,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Pullen Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Pullen Investment Management LLC now owns 22,954 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $1,343,000 after buying an additional 161 shares during the last quarter. Aurdan Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,534,000. Toronto Dominion Bank raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 58.6% in the fourth quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 161,526 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $9,452,000 after buying an additional 59,694 shares during the last quarter. Parr Mcknight Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,155,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new position in W. R. Berkley during the fourth quarter worth approximately $6,081,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on WRB shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Bank of America reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $74.00 target price (up from $73.00) on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $70.64.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of WRB stock traded up $0.68 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $74.64. The stock had a trading volume of 4,276,324 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,771,001. 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 Co. has a twelve month low of $51.17 and a twelve month high of $76.38. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $70.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $64.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $28.32 billion, a PE ratio of 17.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.44.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data 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). 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.01 billion. As a group, equities analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

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.