Rhumbline Advisers Has $46.50 Million Stock Holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Rhumbline Advisers lifted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 11.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 653,336 shares of the insurance provider's stock after purchasing an additional 68,385 shares during the quarter. Rhumbline Advisers owned about 0.17% of W. R. Berkley worth $46,495,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Pullen Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Pullen Investment Management LLC now owns 22,954 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $1,343,000 after purchasing an additional 161 shares during the period. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 5,289 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $310,000 after purchasing an additional 188 shares during the period. Optiver Holding B.V. raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 107.3% during the 4th 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 period. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 21,588 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $1,263,000 after buying an additional 257 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Freedom Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,782 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $514,000 after buying an additional 261 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered W. R. Berkley from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $74.00 to $76.00 in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Wall Street Zen cut W. R. Berkley from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on 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 assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $70.64.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of W. R. Berkley stock traded up $0.36 on Friday, reaching $74.23. 915,965 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,764,625. 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 fifty-two week low of $51.17 and a fifty-two week high of $76.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $28.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.42. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $71.08 and a 200-day moving average price of $64.64.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $3.01 billion during 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%. On average, analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 EPS 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.