Short Interest in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Drops By 23.9%

W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,490,000 shares, a decrease of 23.9% from the October 15th total of 5,900,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,770,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.5 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on WRB shares. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com raised W. R. Berkley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 1.8 %

WRB stock traded up $1.09 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $60.74. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,497,796 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,784,405. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $58.42 and its 200 day moving average price is $56.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.57, a PEG ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 0.62. W. R. Berkley has a twelve month low of $45.75 and a twelve month high of $61.96.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The firm’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that W. R. Berkley will post 3.96 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.53%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.20%.

Institutional Trading of W. R. Berkley

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 22.9% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 753,191 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $42,729,000 after purchasing an additional 140,396 shares during the last quarter. Wexford Capital LP bought a new position in W. R. Berkley during the third quarter valued at approximately $233,000. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 161.1% during the 3rd quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 236,354 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $13,408,000 after purchasing an additional 145,836 shares during the last quarter. Stansberry Asset Management LLC increased its stake in W. R. Berkley by 50.3% in the third quarter. Stansberry Asset Management LLC now owns 412,209 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $23,385,000 after purchasing an additional 137,952 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 48.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $857,814,000 after buying an additional 4,947,830 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

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.