W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Raised to “Buy” at StockNews.com

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) was upgraded by investment analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report issued on Sunday.

WRB has been the subject of several other research reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Barclays increased their price target on W. R. Berkley from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on W. R. Berkley from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $63.00 price target on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $64.36.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 1.6 %

WRB stock opened at $63.14 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36. The business’s 50-day moving average is $59.59 and its two-hundred day moving average is $59.45. The company has a market cap of $23.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.67. W. R. Berkley has a fifty-two week low of $50.73 and a fifty-two week high of $65.49.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, topping 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%. As a group, analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On W. R. Berkley

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of WRB. State Street Corp increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 48.6% during 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 during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter worth $272,582,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 51.0% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 11,321,958 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $642,294,000 after purchasing an additional 3,825,238 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 55.1% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $417,897,000 after purchasing an additional 2,616,227 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 211.3% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $208,436,000 after purchasing an additional 2,493,758 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

W. R. Berkley Company Profile

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.