W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Raised 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 research note published on Tuesday.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on WRB. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $63.00 price target on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $68.39.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 0.7%

W. R. Berkley stock opened at $71.68 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $27.19 billion, a PE ratio of 16.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.44. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $67.90 and a 200 day moving average price of $62.89. W. R. Berkley has a 52 week low of $51.17 and a 52 week high of $76.38. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.01 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.83% and a net margin of 12.88%. Equities research analysts predict that W. R. Berkley will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.42%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Barclays PLC boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 78.6% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,469,608 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $83,372,000 after acquiring an additional 646,973 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 182.0% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 41,723 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,473,000 after acquiring an additional 26,930 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position 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 acquiring an additional 2,616,227 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 13,631 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $773,000 after acquiring an additional 242 shares during the period. Finally, Czech National Bank boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 6.6% during the 4th quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 65,273 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,820,000 after acquiring an additional 4,031 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.