W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Earns “Sector Perform” Rating from Royal Bank of Canada

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB)‘s stock had its “sector perform” rating restated by research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada in a research note issued on Monday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $86.00 price target on the insurance provider’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s target price indicates a potential upside of 8.01% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on WRB. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $83.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. TD Cowen began coverage on W. R. Berkley in a report on Monday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $103.00 target price on the stock. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $95.00 to $93.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $88.00 to $83.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 13th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, June 14th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $90.44.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 1.3 %

WRB traded up $1.04 during trading on Monday, reaching $79.62. 48,801 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,183,600. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $79.18 and its 200 day moving average is $79.78. W. R. Berkley has a 12 month low of $57.79 and a 12 month high of $89.18. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.36 billion, a PE ratio of 14.12, a P/E/G ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 0.61.

Shares of W. R. Berkley are scheduled to split on Wednesday, July 10th. The 3-2 split was announced on Wednesday, June 12th. The newly minted shares will be payable to shareholders after the closing bell on Tuesday, July 9th.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The insurance provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $2.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.23% and a return on equity of 20.51%. The business’s revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.00 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley will post 5.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On W. R. Berkley

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of WRB. EULAV Asset Management lifted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 4.4% during the third quarter. EULAV Asset Management now owns 945,260 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $60,015,000 after acquiring an additional 39,716 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the 4th quarter worth about $8,970,000. NatWest Group plc bought a new position in W. R. Berkley during the fourth quarter valued at about $8,791,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in W. R. Berkley during the fourth quarter worth about $870,000. Finally, Financial Strategies Group Inc. raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 29.6% in the fourth quarter. Financial Strategies Group Inc. now owns 53,112 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $4,126,000 after acquiring an additional 12,140 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

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.