W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Downgraded by StockNews.com

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) was downgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday.

WRB has been the subject of several other research reports. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $59.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $57.00 price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. TD Cowen began coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Monday, July 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $68.67 price objective for the company. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $58.67 to $55.33 in a research report on Thursday, June 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $59.67.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

NYSE WRB opened at $58.51 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.38 and a quick ratio of 0.38. W. R. Berkley has a 1 year low of $41.82 and a 1 year high of $61.28. The company has a market capitalization of $22.44 billion, a PE ratio of 15.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a fifty day moving average of $57.48 and a two-hundred day moving average of $55.50.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The insurance provider reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.12. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.05% and a return on equity of 21.34%. The business had revenue of $3.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.84 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.14 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that W. R. Berkley will post 4.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of WRB. Wedmont Private Capital increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 4,768 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $399,000 after purchasing an additional 137 shares during the last quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 12.7% in the 1st quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. now owns 1,228 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $109,000 after purchasing an additional 138 shares during the last quarter. Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 5.8% in the 1st quarter. Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC now owns 3,166 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $277,000 after purchasing an additional 174 shares during the last quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 4.0% in the 2nd quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV now owns 4,915 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $386,000 after purchasing an additional 188 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Atria Investments Inc increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 50,637 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $4,478,000 after purchasing an additional 189 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About W. R. Berkley

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.