W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Receives $65.13 Average Price Target from Analysts

W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) has been given an average rating of “Hold” by the thirteen ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have given a hold recommendation and five have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $65.13.

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on WRB. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $63.00 price target on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Truist Financial increased their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com cut W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Optiver Holding B.V. lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 107.3% in the 4th quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 427 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares during the last quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC bought a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter worth $35,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in W. R. Berkley during the fourth quarter valued at about $37,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley during the fourth quarter valued at about $42,000. Finally, Colonial Trust Co SC increased its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 79.9% in the fourth quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC now owns 822 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $48,000 after buying an additional 365 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

W. R. Berkley Stock Down 1.8 %

W. R. Berkley stock opened at $64.27 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $62.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $60.62. 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 1-year low of $50.73 and a 1-year high of $76.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.73, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.40.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.83% and a net margin of 12.88%. On average, analysts predict that W. R. Berkley will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.50%. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 7.34%.

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.