StockNews.com Upgrades W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) to Buy

StockNews.com upgraded shares of W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Friday.

WRB has been the topic of a number of other research reports. UBS Group boosted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Evercore ISI boosted 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. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $64.22.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of WRB stock opened at $64.57 on Friday. W. R. Berkley has a 1-year low of $45.75 and a 1-year high of $65.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The company has a market capitalization of $24.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.54, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 0.62. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $59.41 and its 200-day simple moving average is $56.87.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.90 earnings per share. W. R. Berkley’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that W. R. Berkley will post 3.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 23rd were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.20%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On W. R. Berkley

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in WRB. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 48.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $857,814,000 after purchasing an additional 4,947,830 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 51.0% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 11,321,958 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $642,294,000 after purchasing an additional 3,825,238 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 211.3% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $208,436,000 after purchasing an additional 2,493,758 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 47.9% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,591,353 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $429,266,000 after purchasing an additional 2,459,073 shares during the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 104.1% during the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,154,783 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $235,701,000 after purchasing an additional 2,118,641 shares during the last quarter. 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.