W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Sees Large Growth in Short Interest

W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 8,630,000 shares, an increase of 20.4% from the February 13th total of 7,170,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,720,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 5.0 days. Approximately 2.9% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Institutional Trading of W. R. Berkley

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Pullen Investment Management LLC boosted 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 valued at $1,343,000 after acquiring an additional 161 shares in the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 8,038 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $456,000 after acquiring an additional 181 shares in the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted 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 valued at $310,000 after acquiring an additional 188 shares in the last quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. boosted 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 valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 15,632 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $915,000 after buying an additional 235 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on WRB. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. StockNews.com lowered shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $64.36.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

NYSE:WRB traded up $0.25 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $63.65. The stock had a trading volume of 1,676,287 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,654,335. W. R. Berkley has a 1-year low of $50.73 and a 1-year high of $65.49. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $60.64 and its 200-day simple moving average is $59.84. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $24.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.59, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.63.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.34%.

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.