W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) have earned an average rating of “Hold” from the fifteen research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $74.4615.

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on WRB. BMO Capital Markets cut shares of W.R. Berkley from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $64.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group set a $87.00 price target on shares of W.R. Berkley and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $66.00 price target on shares of W.R. Berkley and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, Truist Financial set a $84.00 price target on shares of W.R. Berkley and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st.

Institutional Trading of W.R. Berkley

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WRB. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley in the 2nd quarter worth $367,921,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 6,503.1% in the 2nd quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,561,230 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $188,174,000 after acquiring an additional 2,601,230 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 21.8% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,022,039 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $357,368,000 after acquiring an additional 900,071 shares during the period. Woodline Partners LP lifted its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 4,198.9% in the 1st quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 777,201 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $55,306,000 after acquiring an additional 759,122 shares during the period. Finally, Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 7,314.0% in the 1st quarter. Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC now owns 744,516 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $52,980,000 after acquiring an additional 734,474 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W.R. Berkley Trading Down 3.6%

NYSE WRB opened at $72.58 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.37. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $74.13 and its 200 day moving average price is $72.28. The company has a market capitalization of $27.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.42. W.R. Berkley has a 12 month low of $55.97 and a 12 month high of $78.48.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its earnings results on Monday, October 20th. The insurance provider reported $1.10 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $3.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.16 billion. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 13.01% and a return on equity of 19.35%. The company’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.93 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that W.R. Berkley will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W.R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 22nd. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.56%.

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.