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

Shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) have earned a consensus rating of “Reduce” from the eighteen ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eleven have issued a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $68.3125.

WRB has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets raised W.R. Berkley from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $64.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Bank of America dropped their price target on W.R. Berkley from $68.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. UBS Group set a $68.00 price target on W.R. Berkley and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded W.R. Berkley from an “overweight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $64.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Monday, June 8th. Finally, Brean Capital downgraded W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $73.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, March 25th.

W.R. Berkley Price Performance

WRB opened at $71.32 on Monday. W.R. Berkley has a 12-month low of $62.87 and a 12-month high of $78.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $67.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $68.12. The company has a market capitalization of $26.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.11, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.30.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.13 by $0.17. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 18.92% and a net margin of 12.64%.The business had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.18 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.01 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that W.R. Berkley will post 4.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 23rd will be given a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 23rd. This is a positive change from W.R. Berkley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.47%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Sapient Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley in the 1st quarter worth $209,000. Western Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley in the 1st quarter worth $177,000. First Nebraska Trust Co bought a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley in the 1st quarter worth $230,000. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC bought a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley in the 1st quarter worth $692,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 23.4% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,904,522 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $192,512,000 after acquiring an additional 550,560 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About W.R. Berkley

W. R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE: WRB) is a publicly traded insurance holding company that underwrites and sells commercial property and casualty insurance, specialty insurance products, and reinsurance. Headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, the company operates a portfolio of underwriting businesses that focus on niche and specialty commercial risks, offering coverage tailored to industries such as transportation, construction, professional services and other commercial lines.

The company’s product mix includes primary and excess casualty, property, professional liability, environmental and other specialty lines, together with treaty and facultative reinsurance solutions.