Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC Purchases Shares of 4,248 W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 4,248 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $300,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $8,970,000. Bleakley Financial Group LLC raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 17,244 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,220,000 after purchasing an additional 148 shares during the period. Investment Partners Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley during the fourth quarter worth approximately $318,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 646.3% during the fourth quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,112 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $149,000 after purchasing an additional 1,829 shares during the period. Finally, Wallington Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Wallington Asset Management LLC now owns 263,900 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $18,663,000 after purchasing an additional 3,272 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on WRB. UBS Group upped their target price on W. R. Berkley from $81.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on W. R. Berkley from $83.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Truist Financial upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $83.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $71.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $89.22.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of W. R. Berkley stock opened at $80.98 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $20.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a current ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $84.49 and a 200 day simple moving average of $75.64. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12-month low of $55.50 and a 12-month high of $89.18.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 24th. The insurance provider reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by $0.10. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 19.03% and a net margin of 11.38%. The firm had revenue of $3.22 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.70 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.16 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 5.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 4th were given a dividend of $0.11 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 1st. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.54%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.70%.

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.