W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Shares Acquired by Brighton Jones LLC

Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 1.7% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,879 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 212 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $1,012,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the 4th quarter worth approximately $335,000. Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 35.8% during the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 5,069 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $359,000 after buying an additional 1,336 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 249.6% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 386,933 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $27,364,000 after buying an additional 276,242 shares during the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 108.1% in the fourth quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 28,747 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,033,000 after buying an additional 14,933 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Commerce Bank lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 5.3% during the 4th quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 8,332 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $589,000 after acquiring an additional 422 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on WRB. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $59.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $57.00 target price on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Barclays initiated coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 price target on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $77.70.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

WRB stock opened at $57.45 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $22.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.28, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a current ratio of 0.38. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $56.76 and a 200 day simple moving average of $73.16. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52 week low of $41.37 and a 52 week high of $61.28.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The insurance provider reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.12. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.05% and a return on equity of 21.34%. The business had revenue of $3.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.84 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.14 EPS. W. R. Berkley’s revenue was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd will be paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.51%.

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.