W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the nine ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $89.22.

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Truist Financial raised their target price on W. R. Berkley from $83.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. StockNews.com lowered shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $86.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on W. R. Berkley from $71.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. ING Groep NV raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 7,669 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $542,000 after acquiring an additional 128 shares in the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 3.0% during the first quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 4,768 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $399,000 after purchasing an additional 137 shares during the last quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 12.7% during the first quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. now owns 1,228 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $109,000 after purchasing an additional 138 shares during the last quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 2,250 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $159,000 after purchasing an additional 144 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ballentine Partners LLC increased its position in W. R. Berkley by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 9,180 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $649,000 after acquiring an additional 147 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

NYSE WRB opened at $82.40 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.37. W. R. Berkley has a 1-year low of $55.50 and a 1-year high of $89.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.28, a P/E/G ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 0.57. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $84.53 and its 200-day simple moving average is $75.78.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The insurance provider reported $1.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by $0.10. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.38% and a return on equity of 19.03%. The firm had revenue of $3.22 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.70 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.16 earnings per share. W. R. Berkley’s revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that W. R. Berkley will post 5.94 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 13th. Investors of record on Monday, March 4th were issued a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 1st. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.70%.

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.