W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.08

W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, February 24th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a dividend of 0.08 per share by the insurance provider on Wednesday, March 12th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd.

W. R. Berkley has raised its dividend by an average of 11.4% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 23 consecutive years. W. R. Berkley has a payout ratio of 6.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect W. R. Berkley to earn $4.71 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.32 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 6.8%.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

NYSE WRB opened at $62.34 on Tuesday. W. R. Berkley has a 52 week low of $50.73 and a 52 week high of $65.49. 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 stock has a market cap of $23.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $59.27 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $59.31.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. Analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WRB has been the subject of several recent research reports. Barclays increased their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $63.00 target price on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Morgan Stanley started 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 price target for the company. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $64.36.

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.