Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Raises W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Price Target to $61.00

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) had its target price hoisted by analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $60.00 to $61.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “market perform” rating on the insurance provider’s stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods’ target price points to a potential upside of 3.94% from the company’s current price.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Evercore ISI upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $64.36.

W. R. Berkley Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $58.69 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.36 billion, a PE ratio of 15.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. W. R. Berkley has a 12-month low of $50.73 and a 12-month high of $65.49. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $60.05 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $58.48.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.41%. As a group, analysts expect that W. R. Berkley will post 3.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of W. R. Berkley

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of WRB. State Street Corp boosted its holdings 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 buying an additional 4,947,830 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 51.0% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 11,321,958 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $642,294,000 after acquiring an additional 3,825,238 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake 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 worth $429,266,000 after acquiring an additional 2,459,073 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in W. R. Berkley by 55.1% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $417,897,000 after purchasing 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% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,154,783 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $235,701,000 after purchasing an additional 2,118,641 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

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.