The Goldman Sachs Group Upgrades W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) to “Buy”

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) was upgraded by equities researchers at The Goldman Sachs Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has a $69.00 price target on the insurance provider’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 7.26% from the company’s current price.

WRB has been the subject of a number of other reports. UBS Group upped their target price on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Evercore ISI upped their target price on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Bank of America upped their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $64.22.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 2.0 %

WRB stock opened at $64.33 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.51 billion, a PE ratio of 16.48, a PEG ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 0.62. W. R. Berkley has a 1-year low of $45.75 and a 1-year high of $64.46. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $58.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.67.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.90 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley will post 3.94 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On W. R. Berkley

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 48.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $857,814,000 after buying an additional 4,947,830 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 51.0% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 11,321,958 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $642,294,000 after buying an additional 3,825,238 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 47.9% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,591,353 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $429,266,000 after buying an additional 2,459,073 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 0.7% in the second quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,553,875 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $593,584,000 after buying an additional 54,530 shares during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 104.1% in the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,154,783 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $235,701,000 after buying an additional 2,118,641 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

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.