W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Receives $60.07 Average Target Price from Analysts

W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) has received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the nine analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $60.07.

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Evercore ISI raised their target price on W. R. Berkley from $55.33 to $59.33 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Truist Financial increased their price target on W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. StockNews.com lowered W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $58.67 to $55.33 in a report on Thursday, June 13th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on W. R. Berkley from $58.67 to $57.33 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 3rd.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On W. R. Berkley

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. ING Groep NV boosted its holdings in 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 during the period. Wedmont Private Capital boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 3.0% during the 1st quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 4,768 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $399,000 after acquiring an additional 137 shares during the period. West Paces Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 12.7% during the 1st quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. now owns 1,228 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $109,000 after acquiring an additional 138 shares during the period. Quadrant Capital Group LLC boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 2,250 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $159,000 after acquiring an additional 144 shares during the period. Finally, Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC now owns 14,221 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,258,000 after buying an additional 145 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of WRB stock traded down $0.45 on Monday, hitting $54.73. The company had a trading volume of 2,092,296 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,798,606. The firm has a market cap of $20.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 0.61. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $54.33 and its two-hundred day moving average is $54.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36. W. R. Berkley has a twelve month low of $40.25 and a twelve month high of $59.46.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The insurance provider reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.12. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 21.62% and a net margin of 12.05%. The business had revenue of $3.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.84 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.14 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley will post 3.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 24th were paid a $0.08 dividend. This is a positive change from W. R. Berkley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.07. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 24th. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.51%.

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.