W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Rating Increased to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report released on Wednesday morning.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on WRB. Bank of America boosted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Morgan Stanley began coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $65.00 price objective for the company. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.82.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 1.0 %

WRB opened at $58.10 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $22.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.88, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 0.67. 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 firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $60.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $58.24. W. R. Berkley has a twelve month low of $47.59 and a twelve month high of $65.49.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.90 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley will post 3.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 8.21%.

Institutional Trading of W. R. Berkley

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Kings Path Partners LLC bought a new position in W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,084,000. Pensionfund Sabic boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 20.3% during the fourth quarter. Pensionfund Sabic now owns 23,750 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,390,000 after purchasing an additional 4,000 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 6.3% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 25,098 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,466,000 after buying an additional 1,479 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 32.9% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 7,627 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $446,000 after buying an additional 1,888 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 2,616,227 shares in the last quarter. 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.