Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV Acquires 218 Shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB)

Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV grew its holdings in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 24.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,104 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 218 shares during the period. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $79,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 75.6% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 50,503 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,955,000 after buying an additional 21,737 shares during the period. New York Life Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC now owns 40,395 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,364,000 after purchasing an additional 369 shares during the period. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. increased its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 12.4% in the fourth quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 4,648 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $272,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in W.R. Berkley during the fourth quarter valued at $3,527,000. Finally, US Bancorp DE grew its position in W.R. Berkley by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 18,317 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,072,000 after buying an additional 773 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on W.R. Berkley from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of W.R. Berkley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $74.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of W.R. Berkley from $63.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on W.R. Berkley from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $71.42.

W.R. Berkley Stock Up 1.7%

Shares of NYSE:WRB opened at $73.52 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.43. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $72.77 and its 200-day moving average price is $65.79. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 12-month low of $51.41 and a 12-month high of $76.38.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.07). W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 19.66% and a net margin of 12.43%. The company had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.01 billion. On average, equities analysts anticipate that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.09 per share. This is a positive change from W.R. Berkley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 23rd. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.35%.

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.