W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Trading Down 4.7% Following Analyst Downgrade

W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)’s share price fell 4.7% during trading on Tuesday after Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on the stock from $59.00 to $58.00. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods currently has a market perform rating on the stock. W. R. Berkley traded as low as $58.02 and last traded at $58.15. 576,473 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 68% from the average session volume of 1,794,437 shares. The stock had previously closed at $61.03.

WRB has been the topic of several other research reports. Barclays began coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 price target on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Truist Financial upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.08.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On W. R. Berkley

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,439,361 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,161,417,000 after purchasing an additional 195,763 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,553,875 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $593,584,000 after purchasing an additional 54,530 shares during the period. APG Asset Management N.V. increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 2,698,311 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $197,838,000 after purchasing an additional 92,242 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 7.4% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,037,599 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $160,128,000 after acquiring an additional 139,588 shares during the last quarter. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. increased its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,929,931 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $151,654,000 after acquiring an additional 26,464 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 4.1 %

The firm has a market cap of $22.45 billion, a PE ratio of 15.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a current ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $58.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $55.55.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 21.34% and a net margin of 12.05%. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.90 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.02 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.55%. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 8.51%.

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.