W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.08

W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, September 11th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Monday, September 23rd will be paid a dividend of 0.08 per share by the insurance provider on Monday, September 30th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 23rd.

W. R. Berkley has raised its dividend by an average of 11.1% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 23 years. W. R. Berkley has a payout ratio of 7.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect W. R. Berkley to earn $4.26 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.32 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 7.5%.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

NYSE WRB opened at $57.45 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $56.76 and a 200 day simple moving average of $73.09. W. R. Berkley has a 52-week low of $41.37 and a 52-week high of $61.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a current ratio of 0.38. The stock has a market cap of $22.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.28, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 0.62.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WRB has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on 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 reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $57.00 price target on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. StockNews.com cut shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. TD Cowen started coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Monday, July 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $103.00 price target for the company. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $77.70.

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.