W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Raised to “Buy” at StockNews.com

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) was upgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Saturday.

WRB has been the subject of a number of other reports. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $88.00 to $86.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $86.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $99.00 to $94.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $83.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $81.00 to $93.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $90.38.

W. R. Berkley Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of W. R. Berkley stock opened at $78.56 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $20.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 0.60. The company’s 50 day moving average is $83.67 and its 200 day moving average is $76.80. W. R. Berkley has a twelve month low of $55.50 and a twelve month high of $89.18. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The insurance provider reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $2.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.77 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.23% and a return on equity of 21.01%. The firm’s revenue was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.00 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On W. R. Berkley

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. EULAV Asset Management increased its stake in W. R. Berkley by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. EULAV Asset Management now owns 945,260 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $60,015,000 after buying an additional 39,716 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in W. R. Berkley in the 4th quarter worth about $8,970,000. NatWest Group plc purchased a new position in W. R. Berkley in the 4th quarter worth about $8,791,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in W. R. Berkley in the 4th quarter worth about $870,000. Finally, Financial Strategies Group Inc. increased its stake in W. R. Berkley by 29.6% in the 4th quarter. Financial Strategies Group Inc. now owns 53,112 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $4,126,000 after buying an additional 12,140 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

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.