W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Price Target Raised to $63.00

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) had its price target lifted by Wells Fargo & Company from $59.00 to $63.00 in a report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the insurance provider’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded W. R. Berkley from a buy rating to a neutral rating and cut their price target for the stock from $58.67 to $55.33 in a research note on Thursday, June 13th. TD Cowen began coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research note on Monday, July 1st. They issued a buy rating and a $68.67 price objective on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of W. R. Berkley from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued a sector perform rating and issued a $57.00 price target on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $60.89.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 0.8 %

WRB stock opened at $58.57 on Thursday. W. R. Berkley has a 1-year low of $41.82 and a 1-year high of $61.28. The stock has a market cap of $22.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.62. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $57.76 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $55.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted 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. The company had revenue of $3.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.84 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.05% and a return on equity of 21.34%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.14 earnings per share. Analysts expect that W. R. Berkley will post 4.02 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 23rd were given a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.55%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.51%.

Institutional Trading of W. R. Berkley

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Wedmont Private Capital grew its stake 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 in the last quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 138 shares in the last quarter. Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 5.8% during the 1st quarter. Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC now owns 3,166 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $277,000 after purchasing an additional 174 shares during the last quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV lifted 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 boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 0.4% in the first 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 in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.