W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the twelve brokerages that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have given a hold recommendation and six have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $64.22.

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on WRB. Evercore ISI upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Truist Financial upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, November 25th.

Institutional Trading of W. R. Berkley

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the second quarter worth about $42,000. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. increased its position in W. R. Berkley by 49.9% in the second quarter. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. now owns 580 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 51.0% during the third quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 619 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 209 shares in the last quarter. PFS Partners LLC grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 51.1% during the third quarter. PFS Partners LLC now owns 719 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 243 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mascoma Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the second quarter worth about $62,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 0.6 %

W. R. Berkley stock opened at $64.55 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $24.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 0.62. 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 has a 12 month low of $45.75 and a 12 month high of $65.49. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $59.41 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $56.90.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.90 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that W. R. Berkley will post 3.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were given a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 8.21%.

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.