Bank of America Boosts W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Price Target to $73.00

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) had its price objective hoisted by Bank of America from $65.00 to $73.00 in a report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the insurance provider’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on WRB. The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of 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. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Thursday. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered W. R. Berkley from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $60.89.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

NYSE:WRB opened at $58.57 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $22.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.62. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $57.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $55.51. W. R. Berkley has a twelve month low of $41.82 and a twelve month high of $61.28. The company has a quick ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The insurance provider reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.12. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.05% and a return on equity of 21.34%. The business had revenue of $3.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.84 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.14 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that W. R. Berkley will post 4.02 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.55%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.39%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On W. R. Berkley

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Wedmont Private Capital raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 4,768 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $399,000 after buying an additional 137 shares during the last quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 12.7% in the 1st quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. now owns 1,228 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $109,000 after buying an additional 138 shares during the last quarter. Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 5.8% in the 1st quarter. Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC now owns 3,166 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $277,000 after buying an additional 174 shares during the last quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 4.0% in the 2nd quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV now owns 4,915 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $386,000 after buying an additional 188 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Atria Investments Inc raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 50,637 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $4,478,000 after buying an additional 189 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.