Cerity Partners LLC Boosts Stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 11.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 185,251 shares of the insurance provider's stock after buying an additional 19,408 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC owned approximately 0.07% of W. R. Berkley worth $13,101,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of WRB. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in W. R. Berkley by 427.2% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 10,899,093 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $790,947,000 after purchasing an additional 8,831,553 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 55.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,331,473 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $1,620,232,000 after acquiring an additional 8,664,707 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 65.6% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,940,770 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $795,136,000 after acquiring an additional 4,732,333 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter worth $199,140,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 119.7% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,377,556 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $224,911,000 after acquiring an additional 1,840,475 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WRB has been the subject of several research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on W. R. Berkley from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on W. R. Berkley from $71.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. StockNews.com cut W. R. Berkley from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $92.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $89.22.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WRB traded down $0.15 on Monday, hitting $82.00. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,135,212 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,184,914. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $84.43 and a 200 day simple moving average of $75.44. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1 year low of $55.50 and a 1 year high of $89.18. The company has a market capitalization of $21.04 billion, a PE ratio of 16.21, a PEG ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.37.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The insurance provider reported $1.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.35 by $0.10. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 19.03% and a net margin of 11.38%. The firm had revenue of $3.22 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.70 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.16 EPS. The company's revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 5.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 4th were issued a $0.11 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 1st. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.54%. W. R. Berkley's payout ratio is currently 8.70%.

W. R. Berkley 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.