W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Posts Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.10 EPS

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday. The insurance provider reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.10, Briefing.com reports. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.38% and a return on equity of 19.03%. The business had revenue of $2.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.00 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis.

W. R. Berkley Trading Down 5.2 %

WRB opened at $79.10 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.37. W. R. Berkley has a fifty-two week low of $55.50 and a fifty-two week high of $89.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.29 billion, a PE ratio of 15.63, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.57. The company’s 50-day moving average is $84.55 and its 200 day moving average is $76.20.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 13th. Investors of record on Monday, March 4th were issued a $0.11 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 1st. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.56%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.70%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on WRB. StockNews.com cut shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $71.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $81.00 to $93.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $86.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $89.88.

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.