W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Stock Rating Lowered by StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Thursday.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on WRB. 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 restated a sector perform rating and set a $57.00 price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. TD Cowen initiated coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research note on Monday, July 1st. They set a buy rating and a $103.00 target price for the company. Truist Financial lifted 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. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from a buy rating to a neutral rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $88.00 to $83.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $77.70.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

NYSE:WRB opened at $57.16 on Thursday. W. R. Berkley has a twelve month low of $41.68 and a twelve month high of $61.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.20, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a current ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $57.39 and its 200 day simple moving average is $71.41.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The insurance provider reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 firm had revenue of $3.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.84 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.14 EPS. W. R. Berkley’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that W. R. Berkley will post 4.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.56%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.51%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. NEOS Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the fourth quarter valued at $204,000. Rafferty Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 72,210 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $5,107,000 after acquiring an additional 3,933 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 11.2% during the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 30,128 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,131,000 after acquiring an additional 3,023 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 2,064.8% in the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 269,817 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $19,081,000 after acquiring an additional 257,353 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cibc World Markets Corp boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 44.8% in the 4th quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp now owns 47,313 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,346,000 after purchasing an additional 14,639 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.