W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Shares Acquired by UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC

UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 22.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,487,097 shares of the insurance provider's stock after buying an additional 455,311 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC owned approximately 0.65% of W. R. Berkley worth $145,545,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in WRB. Barclays PLC grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 78.6% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,469,608 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $83,372,000 after acquiring an additional 646,973 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position 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 worth $417,897,000 after buying an additional 2,616,227 shares in the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at $560,000. HB Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 10.5% in the fourth quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,066 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $355,000 after buying an additional 578 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC increased its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 102.8% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 105,775 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $6,190,000 after purchasing an additional 53,621 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company's stock.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 0.3%

WRB traded up $0.19 on Thursday, hitting $73.48. The company had a trading volume of 231,992 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,875,953. The company has a market cap of $27.88 billion, a PE ratio of 16.83, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.44. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12-month low of $51.17 and a 12-month high of $76.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $70.13 and its 200 day simple moving average is $63.96.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last posted its 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 business had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.01 billion. Equities research analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on WRB shares. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target 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. The Goldman Sachs Group cut W. R. Berkley from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $74.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Wall Street Zen lowered W. R. Berkley from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Barclays upped 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. Finally, Bank of America reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $74.00 price objective (up from $73.00) on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $70.64.

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.