W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Upgraded at The Goldman Sachs Group

The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Monday morning, MarketBeat reports. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has $69.00 target price on the insurance provider’s stock.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on WRB. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. StockNews.com lowered shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Barclays started coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 price objective on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $64.22.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of WRB stock opened at $64.94 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36. W. R. Berkley has a fifty-two week low of $45.75 and a fifty-two week high of $65.49. The company has a market capitalization of $24.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.64, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.62. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $59.12 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $56.73.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share. Analysts expect that W. R. Berkley will post 3.94 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.20%.

Institutional Trading of W. R. Berkley

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 182.0% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 41,723 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,473,000 after buying an additional 26,930 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 150.3% in the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 48,849 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,771,000 after purchasing an additional 29,329 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the third quarter worth $98,000. World Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley during the third quarter valued at $1,709,000. Finally, Anchor Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the third quarter valued at $88,000. 68.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.