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

Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the twelve analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $70.64.

Several analysts recently issued reports on WRB shares. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 19th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 21st.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Amundi boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 43.1% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 1,477,932 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $85,853,000 after buying an additional 444,986 shares during the last quarter. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $982,000. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 12.0% during the 4th quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC now owns 4,967 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $304,000 after purchasing an additional 532 shares during the period. Financial Strategies Group Inc. boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Financial Strategies Group Inc. now owns 119,327 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $6,766,000 after purchasing an additional 4,363 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 55.1% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $417,897,000 after acquiring an additional 2,616,227 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 0.9%

NYSE WRB opened at $73.93 on Friday. W. R. Berkley has a 52 week low of $51.17 and a 52 week high of $76.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $70.32 and its 200-day simple moving average is $64.05. The firm has a market cap of $28.05 billion, a PE ratio of 16.94, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.44.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $3.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.01 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

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.