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 report released on Tuesday.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on WRB. Truist Financial upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $63.00 price target on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. UBS Group upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $68.39.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $72.68 on Tuesday. 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 twelve month low of $51.17 and a twelve month high of $76.38. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $68.27 and a two-hundred day moving average of $63.05. The stock has a market cap of $27.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.66, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.44.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by ($0.07). W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. The firm had revenue of $3.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.01 billion. On average, research analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 7.42%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Spectrum Wealth Counsel LLC acquired a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the first quarter valued at $29,000. Garde Capital Inc. acquired a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the first quarter valued at $30,000. Optiver Holding B.V. grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 107.3% in the fourth quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 427 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 221 shares during the last quarter. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the first quarter valued at $36,000. Finally, Keystone Global Partners LLC acquired a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the first quarter valued at $41,000. 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.