W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Downgraded by StockNews.com to Hold

StockNews.com cut shares of W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Thursday.

WRB has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Barclays assumed coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an underweight rating and a $56.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $59.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group cut W. R. Berkley from a buy rating to a neutral rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $58.67 to $55.33 in a research report on Thursday, June 13th. Truist Financial raised their target price on W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. 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 report on Tuesday, July 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $59.67.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 2.4 %

Shares of NYSE:WRB opened at $58.51 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.44 billion, a PE ratio of 15.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 0.62. W. R. Berkley has a 1 year low of $41.82 and a 1 year high of $61.28. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $57.48 and a 200 day moving average price of $55.47.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 22nd. The insurance provider reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $3.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.84 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 21.34% and a net margin of 12.05%. 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 firm posted $1.14 EPS. Analysts expect that W. R. Berkley will post 4.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.55%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.51%.

Institutional Trading of W. R. Berkley

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of WRB. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,439,361 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,161,417,000 after buying an additional 195,763 shares in the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 0.7% during the second quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,553,875 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $593,584,000 after acquiring an additional 54,530 shares in the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 3.5% during the second quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 2,698,311 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $197,838,000 after purchasing an additional 92,242 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in W. R. Berkley by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,041,442 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $144,371,000 after purchasing an additional 39,594 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,037,599 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $160,128,000 after purchasing an additional 139,588 shares during the last quarter. 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.