W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) PT Raised to $68.00

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) had its target price lifted by Wells Fargo & Company from $63.00 to $68.00 in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the insurance provider’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on WRB. StockNews.com lowered W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $66.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Truist Financial raised their target price on W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. TD Cowen began coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research report on Monday, July 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $68.67 price objective for the company. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $65.00 to $73.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.08.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

WRB opened at $58.16 on Tuesday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $22.30 billion, a PE ratio of 15.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.62. W. R. Berkley has a 1 year low of $43.20 and a 1 year high of $61.96. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $58.37 and its 200 day simple moving average is $55.60.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.05% and a return on equity of 21.34%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.90 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that W. R. Berkley will post 4.02 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were given a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.51%.

Institutional Trading of W. R. Berkley

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. West Paces Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 12.7% in the first quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. now owns 1,228 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $109,000 after acquiring an additional 138 shares in the last quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 4.0% during the 2nd quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV now owns 4,915 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $386,000 after purchasing an additional 188 shares in the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc raised its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 0.4% in the first quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 50,637 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $4,478,000 after purchasing an additional 189 shares during the last quarter. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 49.9% during the second quarter. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. now owns 580 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 193 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AdvisorNet Financial Inc raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 15.9% in the 1st quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 1,436 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $127,000 after buying an additional 197 shares during the last quarter. 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.