W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Upgraded 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 released on Thursday.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on WRB. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on W. R. Berkley from $88.00 to $86.00 and set a sector perform rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $95.00 to $93.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $93.00 to $87.00 and set a market perform rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. UBS Group boosted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $81.00 to $93.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $83.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an in-line rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $90.63.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of WRB opened at $76.65 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $84.26 and a 200 day moving average price of $76.41. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The company has a market capitalization of $19.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 0.57. W. R. Berkley has a 52-week low of $55.50 and a 52-week high of $89.18.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The insurance provider reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $2.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 21.01% and a net margin of 12.23%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.00 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that W. R. Berkley will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 4th were paid a dividend of $0.11 per share. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.57%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 1st. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.80%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of WRB. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 4.9% in the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 9,680 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $615,000 after acquiring an additional 456 shares in the last quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 4.5% in the third quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC now owns 5,195 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $330,000 after acquiring an additional 222 shares in the last quarter. Czech National Bank raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 49.6% in the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 35,557 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,258,000 after acquiring an additional 11,786 shares in the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 16.8% in the third quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 47,655 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,026,000 after acquiring an additional 6,865 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Simplicity Solutions LLC raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 2.3% in the third quarter. Simplicity Solutions LLC now owns 17,096 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,085,000 after acquiring an additional 386 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.