What Do Hedge Funds Think of W.R. Berkley Corporation (WRB)?

Hedge funds run by legendary names like Nelson Peltz and David Tepper make billions of dollars a year for themselves and their super-rich accredited investors (you’ve got to have a minimum of $1 million liquid to invest in a hedge fund) by spending enormous resources on analyzing and uncovering data about small-cap stocks that the big brokerage houses don’t follow. Small caps are where they can generate significant out-performance. That’s why we pay special attention to hedge fund activity in these stocks.

W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) investors should pay attention to an increase in hedge fund sentiment in recent months. At the end of this article we will also compare WRB to other stocks including The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES), Airgas, Inc. (NYSE:ARG), and PulteGroup, Inc. (NYSE:PHM) to get a better sense of its popularity.

Keeping this in mind, let’s take a glance at the recent action regarding W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB).

What does the smart money think about W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB)?

At the end of the third quarter, a total of 22 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 10% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Boykin Curry’s Eagle Capital Management has the most valuable position in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB), worth close to $433.5 million, amounting to 1.9% of its total 13F portfolio. On Eagle Capital Management’s heels is Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group, with a $60.6 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedge funds and institutional investors that hold long positions consist of Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors and Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP.