Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC Has $300,000 Holdings in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 12.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,088 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 442 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $300,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of WRB. Hilltop National Bank bought a new position in W.R. Berkley in the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. Spectrum Wealth Counsel LLC bought a new position in W.R. Berkley in the 1st quarter worth $29,000. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in W.R. Berkley in the 1st quarter worth $36,000. Keystone Global Partners LLC bought a new position in W.R. Berkley in the 1st quarter worth $41,000. Finally, REAP Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 148.2% in the 2nd quarter. REAP Financial Group LLC now owns 633 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 378 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on WRB shares. TD Cowen downgraded shares of W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $78.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Friday, June 27th. UBS Group set a $87.00 target price on shares of W.R. Berkley and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Barclays restated an “underweight” rating and set a $73.00 price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $76.00 to $75.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $75.67.

W.R. Berkley Stock Performance

NYSE WRB opened at $74.93 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $28.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.74, a PEG ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.42. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $73.86 and its 200 day simple moving average is $71.96. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a twelve month low of $55.97 and a twelve month high of $78.48. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its earnings results on Monday, October 20th. The insurance provider reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $3.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.16 billion. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 13.01% and a return on equity of 19.35%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.93 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W.R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 22nd were paid a $0.09 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 22nd. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. W.R. Berkley’s payout ratio is presently 7.56%.

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.