CreativeOne Wealth LLC Takes $410,000 Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

CreativeOne Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 7,224 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $410,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of WRB. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 211.3% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $208,436,000 after acquiring an additional 2,493,758 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 104.1% during the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,154,783 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $235,701,000 after purchasing an additional 2,118,641 shares during the period. EULAV Asset Management grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 50.0% during the 3rd quarter. EULAV Asset Management now owns 1,564,890 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $88,776,000 after purchasing an additional 521,630 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 58.2% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,333,418 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $75,645,000 after purchasing an additional 490,669 shares during the period. Finally, Confluence Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 47.6% during the 3rd quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 1,363,295 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $77,340,000 after purchasing an additional 439,853 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of WRB opened at $64.55 on Monday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $59.41 and its two-hundred day moving average is $56.94. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52-week low of $45.75 and a 52-week high of $65.49. The firm has a market cap of $24.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.54, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. The business’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.90 EPS. Analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 23rd were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.20%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on WRB. UBS Group boosted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. StockNews.com upgraded W. R. Berkley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, November 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $64.22.

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.