StockNews.com Upgrades W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) to “Buy”

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) was upgraded by stock analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Wednesday.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Bank of America increased their target price on W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research 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 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, November 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $64.28.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 0.6 %

WRB opened at $60.48 on Wednesday. W. R. Berkley has a twelve month low of $45.75 and a twelve month high of $65.49. The company has a fifty day moving average of $60.40 and a 200-day moving average of $57.48. The stock has a market cap of $23.05 billion, a PE ratio of 15.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced 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. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. The company had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.90 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that W. R. Berkley will post 3.96 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in WRB. ORG Partners LLC purchased a new position in W. R. Berkley in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $137,000. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 0.5% in the second quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 39,857 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,132,000 after acquiring an additional 202 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in W. R. Berkley by 99.3% in the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,272 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $179,000 after acquiring an additional 1,132 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 4.1% during the second quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 842,749 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $66,223,000 after purchasing an additional 33,223 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 14.2% during the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 123,968 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $9,741,000 after purchasing an additional 15,420 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.