Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC Has $3.73 Million Stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC increased its position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 376.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 63,750 shares of the insurance provider's stock after acquiring an additional 50,361 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC's holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $3,731,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in WRB. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in W. R. Berkley by 1.5% in 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 acquiring an additional 529,294 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of 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 increased its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,694,703 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $449,168,000 after purchasing an additional 103,350 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 55.1% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $417,897,000 after purchasing an additional 2,616,227 shares in the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 15.2% in 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 purchasing an additional 632,578 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on WRB. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $74.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted 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. Barclays increased their price target on W. R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, May 19th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their target price 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $70.64.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 0.4%

WRB traded down $0.27 during trading on Thursday, reaching $73.77. The company had a trading volume of 1,063,565 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,758,301. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36. 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 cap 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 simple moving average is $70.95 and its 200 day simple moving average is $64.45.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.08 by ($0.07). W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. The firm had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.01 billion. Equities 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.