Wells Fargo & Company Boosts W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Price Target to $68.00

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) had its target price lifted by Wells Fargo & Company from $63.00 to $68.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the insurance provider’s stock.

WRB has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Truist Financial raised their target price on W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $65.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. TD Cowen assumed coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Monday, July 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $68.67 price objective on the stock. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. 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.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

NYSE WRB opened at $59.32 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $22.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.62. W. R. Berkley has a 1 year low of $43.20 and a 1 year high of $61.96. 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 company has a fifty day simple moving average of $58.35 and a 200 day simple moving average of $55.60.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.05% and a return on equity of 21.34%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that W. R. Berkley will post 4.02 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.54%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.51%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On W. R. Berkley

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of WRB. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in W. R. Berkley by 0.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,439,361 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,161,417,000 after acquiring an additional 195,763 shares in the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. increased its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 7.4% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,037,599 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $160,128,000 after buying an additional 139,588 shares in the last quarter. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in W. R. Berkley by 1.4% during the second quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,929,931 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $151,654,000 after buying an additional 26,464 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

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.