Analysts Set W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) PT at $74.85

Shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) have been given an average recommendation of “Hold” by the fifteen ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, ten have issued a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $74.2857.

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on WRB shares. Morgan Stanley set a $80.00 price objective on W.R. Berkley in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Barclays restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $73.00 price target on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. BMO Capital Markets downgraded shares of W.R. Berkley from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $64.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Cantor Fitzgerald set a $78.00 target price on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Monday, October 27th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, October 8th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On W.R. Berkley

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP increased its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 2.2% during the third quarter. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP now owns 153,560 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $11,766,000 after acquiring an additional 3,335 shares during the period. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL bought a new position in W.R. Berkley during the 3rd quarter valued at $734,000. Allworth Financial LP increased its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 3,328 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $255,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares during the period. Groupama Asset Managment bought a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley in the 3rd quarter worth $218,000. Finally, CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 2.1% in the third quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 41,757 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $3,199,000 after buying an additional 865 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W.R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of WRB stock opened at $69.17 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.53, a PEG ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.37. W.R. Berkley has a one year low of $55.97 and a one year high of $78.96. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $74.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $72.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a current ratio of 0.37.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 20th. The insurance provider reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $3.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.16 billion. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 18.86% and a net margin of 13.01%.W.R. Berkley’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.93 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that W.R. Berkley will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W.R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be given a $0.09 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 15th. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.56%.

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.