W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Trading Down 4.7% Following Analyst Downgrade

W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)’s stock price dropped 4.7% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on the stock from $59.00 to $58.00. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods currently has a market perform rating on the stock. W. R. Berkley traded as low as $58.02 and last traded at $58.15. Approximately 576,473 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 68% from the average daily volume of 1,794,437 shares. The stock had previously closed at $61.03.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on WRB. StockNews.com downgraded W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Evercore ISI raised their price target on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday. TD Cowen initiated coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research note on Monday, July 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $68.67 price target on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.08.

Institutional Trading of W. R. Berkley

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,439,361 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,161,417,000 after buying an additional 195,763 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,553,875 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $593,584,000 after buying an additional 54,530 shares during the period. APG Asset Management N.V. lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 3.5% in the 2nd quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 2,698,311 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $197,838,000 after buying an additional 92,242 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 7.4% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,037,599 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $160,128,000 after buying an additional 139,588 shares during the period. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,929,931 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $151,654,000 after buying an additional 26,464 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

W. R. Berkley Stock Down 4.1 %

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 firm has a fifty day moving average price of $58.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $55.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.57, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.62.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 21.34% and a net margin of 12.05%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.55%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.51%.

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.