W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Given Sector Perform Rating at Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada restated their sector perform rating on shares of W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) in a report released on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $86.00 price objective on the insurance provider’s stock.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Friday, June 14th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $99.00 to $94.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of W. R. Berkley from a buy rating to a neutral rating and lowered their price target for the company from $88.00 to $83.00 in a report on Thursday, June 13th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $83.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an in-line rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $88.00 to $86.00 and set a market perform rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $90.44.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $79.02 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $79.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $79.83. The company has a market cap of $20.20 billion, a PE ratio of 14.01, a P/E/G ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 0.61. W. R. Berkley has a 12-month low of $57.79 and a 12-month high of $89.18.

Shares of W. R. Berkley are set to split before the market opens on Wednesday, July 10th. The 3-2 split was announced on Wednesday, June 12th. The newly created shares will be issued to shareholders after the closing bell on Tuesday, July 9th.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The insurance provider reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $2.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.77 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.51% and a net margin of 12.23%. The firm’s revenue was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.00 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley will post 5.82 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 24th were given a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 24th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.61%. This is a positive change from W. R. Berkley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.51%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in WRB. LPL Financial LLC raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 57.2% during the third quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 108,718 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $6,903,000 after buying an additional 39,561 shares during the last quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 124.8% during the third quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 9,079 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $576,000 after buying an additional 5,040 shares during the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 5,937.6% in the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 66,534 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $4,224,000 after purchasing an additional 65,432 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 166.2% in the third quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 17,815 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,130,000 after purchasing an additional 11,123 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Glenmede Trust Co. NA raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 18.5% in the third quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA now owns 6,293 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $400,000 after purchasing an additional 982 shares in the last quarter. 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.