W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) has earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the thirteen brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have issued a hold recommendation and six have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $63.74.

Several equities research analysts recently commented on WRB shares. Evercore ISI raised their target price on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $67.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $56.00 to $50.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, November 25th.

Institutional Trading of W. R. Berkley

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 48.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $857,814,000 after purchasing an additional 4,947,830 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 51.0% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 11,321,958 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $642,294,000 after buying an additional 3,825,238 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 47.9% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,591,353 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $429,266,000 after acquiring an additional 2,459,073 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 55.1% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $417,897,000 after acquiring an additional 2,616,227 shares during the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 104.1% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,154,783 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $235,701,000 after acquiring an additional 2,118,641 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W. R. Berkley Stock Down 1.3 %

W. R. Berkley stock opened at $59.57 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $60.28 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $58.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36. W. R. Berkley has a 52-week low of $48.69 and a 52-week high of $65.49. The firm has a market cap of $22.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.26, a PEG ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 0.67.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its 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. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.90 earnings per share. W. R. Berkley’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that W. R. Berkley will post 3.95 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.54%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.20%.

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.