W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) have been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the thirteen ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $64.36.

WRB has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $63.00 target price on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $65.00 target price for the company.

Institutional Trading of W. R. Berkley

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WRB. Ritholtz Wealth Management boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 50.0% during the third quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 7,632 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $433,000 after purchasing an additional 2,543 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 98.6% during the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 15,397 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $873,000 after purchasing an additional 7,645 shares during the period. Creative Planning boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 59.3% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 73,973 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $4,197,000 after purchasing an additional 27,539 shares during the period. Swedbank AB boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 50.0% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 14,766 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $838,000 after purchasing an additional 4,922 shares during the period. Finally, Vontobel Holding Ltd. bought a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the third quarter valued at approximately $202,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of WRB stock opened at $61.57 on Friday. W. R. Berkley has a 52-week low of $50.73 and a 52-week high of $65.49. The stock has a market cap of $23.46 billion, a PE ratio of 14.11, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $59.35 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $58.97.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. As a group, analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley will post 4.35 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 7.33%.

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.