Brighton Jones LLC Has $1.01 Million Stock Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 12,879 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 212 shares during the quarter. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $1,012,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Wedmont Private Capital lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 3.0% during the 1st quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 4,768 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $399,000 after purchasing an additional 137 shares during the last quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 12.7% during the first quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. now owns 1,228 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $109,000 after buying an additional 138 shares during the last quarter. Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.0% in the first quarter. Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC now owns 14,221 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,258,000 after acquiring an additional 145 shares during the period. Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 5.8% in the first quarter. Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC now owns 3,166 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $277,000 after acquiring an additional 174 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MJP Associates Inc. ADV increased its position in W. R. Berkley by 4.0% during the second quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV now owns 4,915 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $386,000 after acquiring an additional 188 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on WRB. StockNews.com downgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $88.00 to $83.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 13th. TD Cowen began coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research note on Monday, July 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $103.00 price target on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $57.00 price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Barclays initiated coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 price objective on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $77.70.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:WRB opened at $57.45 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 0.62. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $56.76 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $73.16. W. R. Berkley Co. has a fifty-two week low of $41.37 and a fifty-two week high of $61.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.38 and a quick ratio of 0.38.

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

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd will be issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 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.