W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Receives $63.74 Consensus Price Target from Brokerages

W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) has been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the thirteen brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have issued a hold recommendation and six have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $63.74.

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. UBS Group raised their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Evercore ISI upped their target price on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WRB. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 48.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $857,814,000 after purchasing an additional 4,947,830 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 51.0% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 11,321,958 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $642,294,000 after buying an additional 3,825,238 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 47.9% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,591,353 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $429,266,000 after acquiring an additional 2,459,073 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 55.1% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $417,897,000 after acquiring an additional 2,616,227 shares in the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 104.1% in the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,154,783 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $235,701,000 after purchasing an additional 2,118,641 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

W. R. Berkley Stock Down 0.2 %

WRB opened at $59.04 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $22.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.13, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 0.67. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $60.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $58.65. W. R. Berkley has a 52 week low of $50.73 and a 52 week high of $65.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.90 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley will post 3.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were given a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 8.20%.

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.