W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Shares Purchased by Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV

Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 108.1% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 801 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 416 shares during the quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $45,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 0.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,439,361 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,161,417,000 after purchasing an additional 195,763 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 0.7% in the second quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,553,875 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $593,584,000 after purchasing an additional 54,530 shares during the period. APG Asset Management N.V. lifted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 3.5% in the second quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 2,698,311 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $197,838,000 after purchasing an additional 92,242 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 7.4% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,037,599 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $160,128,000 after purchasing an additional 139,588 shares during the period. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.4% in the second quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,929,931 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $151,654,000 after purchasing an additional 26,464 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on WRB. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Barclays initiated coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 target price for the company. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $57.53 on Tuesday. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12 month low of $44.88 and a 12 month high of $61.96. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $58.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of $55.74. The company has a market cap of $21.89 billion, a PE ratio of 14.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 0.62. 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 released its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.91%. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.90 earnings per share. W. R. Berkley’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 23rd were issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.56%. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 8.20%.

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.