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

W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) has been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the fifteen research firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, ten have issued a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $74.8462.

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Barclays restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $73.00 target price on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. BMO Capital Markets downgraded W.R. Berkley from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $64.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company set a $66.00 target price on W.R. Berkley and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald set a $78.00 price target on W.R. Berkley in a research report on Monday, October 27th.

W.R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of WRB stock opened at $67.57 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The business has a 50 day moving average of $74.83 and a two-hundred day moving average of $72.89. The company has a market cap of $25.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.19, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.37. W.R. Berkley has a 52 week low of $55.97 and a 52 week high of $78.96.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 20th. The insurance provider reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.03. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 18.86% and a net margin of 13.01%.The business had revenue of $3.77 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.16 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.93 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that W.R. Berkley will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 29th. Investors of record on Monday, December 15th will be given a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 15th. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.56%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL acquired a new stake in W.R. Berkley in the third quarter worth approximately $734,000. Allworth Financial LP boosted its stake in W.R. Berkley by 4.8% during the third quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 3,328 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $255,000 after buying an additional 153 shares in the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment acquired a new position in W.R. Berkley during the third quarter worth about $218,000. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC lifted its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 41,757 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $3,199,000 after acquiring an additional 865 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. bought a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley during the 3rd quarter valued at about $3,178,000. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by 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.