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

W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) has received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the thirteen ratings firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $64.36.

Several brokerages have recently commented on WRB. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $63.00 target price on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Barclays boosted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. StockNews.com downgraded W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, November 25th.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 0.6 %

NYSE WRB opened at $62.94 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $60.07 and its two-hundred day moving average is $59.68. The company has a market capitalization of $23.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.42, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.63. W. R. Berkley has a 1-year low of $50.73 and a 1-year high of $65.49.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.83% and a net margin of 12.88%. Equities analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 7.34%.

Institutional Trading of W. R. Berkley

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WRB. Assetmark Inc. raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 71.1% during the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 90,408 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $5,129,000 after acquiring an additional 37,569 shares during the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 49.9% during the 3rd quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 92,574 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $5,252,000 after acquiring an additional 30,833 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 279.1% during the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,232 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $70,000 after acquiring an additional 907 shares during the last quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 46.9% during the 3rd quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,216 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $353,000 after acquiring an additional 1,984 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 51.0% during the 3rd quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 26,082 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,479,000 after acquiring an additional 8,808 shares during the last quarter. 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.