Exchange Traded Concepts LLC Purchases 257 Shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB)

Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its position in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 1.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 15,889 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 257 shares during the quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $1,131,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Amundi boosted its position in W.R. Berkley by 43.1% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 1,477,932 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $85,853,000 after acquiring an additional 444,986 shares in the last quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC boosted its position in W.R. Berkley by 12.0% during the 4th quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC now owns 4,967 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $304,000 after acquiring an additional 532 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in W.R. Berkley by 75.6% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 50,503 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,955,000 after acquiring an additional 21,737 shares in the last quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley in the 4th quarter worth approximately $5,676,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 108,810 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $6,312,000 after purchasing an additional 2,394 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on 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. Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $74.00 price target (up from $73.00) on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on W.R. Berkley from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group cut W.R. Berkley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $74.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on W.R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $70.64.

W.R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $72.70 on Thursday. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a twelve month low of $51.41 and a twelve month high of $76.38. The firm has a market cap of $27.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.87, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a 50 day moving average of $72.04 and a 200 day moving average of $65.15. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 firm had revenue of $3.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.01 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 23rd will be paid a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 23rd. 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 0.50%. W.R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 7.42%.

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.