W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Price Target Raised to $63.00 at Royal Bank of Canada

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) had its price objective boosted by Royal Bank of Canada from $57.00 to $63.00 in a research note published on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a sector perform rating on the insurance provider’s stock.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on WRB. Evercore ISI raised their target price on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday. StockNews.com downgraded W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $65.00 to $73.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of W. R. Berkley stock opened at $58.16 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $58.37 and its 200-day simple moving average is $55.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.38 and a quick ratio of 0.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.47, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.62. W. R. Berkley has a 12 month low of $43.20 and a 12 month high of $61.96.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 21.34% and a net margin of 12.05%. W. R. Berkley’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley will post 4.02 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 8.51%.

Institutional Trading of W. R. Berkley

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of WRB. AdvisorNet Financial Inc lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 15.9% in the 1st quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 1,436 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $127,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares in the last quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. raised its holdings 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 period. Sound Income Strategies LLC lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 563.2% during the 1st quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 451 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 383 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 6.1% in the first quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 7,464 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $660,000 after purchasing an additional 429 shares during the period. Finally, Thrive Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 6.4% during the first quarter. Thrive Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,378 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $299,000 after acquiring an additional 204 shares in the last quarter. 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.