W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the twelve research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $70.64.

Several research firms have recently issued reports on WRB. Bank of America reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $74.00 price objective (up previously from $73.00) on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of W.R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of W.R. Berkley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price target for the company from $74.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 21st.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WRB. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley during the 4th quarter valued at about $272,582,000. Madison Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in W.R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $98,446,000. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 121.1% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,949,573 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $172,609,000 after buying an additional 1,615,565 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley during the 4th quarter worth approximately $89,691,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 21.8% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,022,039 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $357,368,000 after acquiring an additional 900,071 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

W.R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of W.R. Berkley stock opened at $72.70 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $72.04 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $65.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.42. W.R. Berkley has a fifty-two week low of $51.41 and a fifty-two week high of $76.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.01 billion. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.43% and a return on equity of 19.66%. On average, equities analysts forecast that W.R. Berkley will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 23rd will be given a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 23rd. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.50%. This is a boost from W.R. Berkley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is 7.42%.

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.