W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Stock Rating Lowered by The Goldman Sachs Group

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) was downgraded by stock analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued on Thursday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They currently have a $76.00 target price on the insurance provider’s stock, up from their prior target price of $74.00. The Goldman Sachs Group’s price objective points to a potential upside of 5.31% from the company’s current price.

WRB has been the subject of several other reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday. Barclays raised their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $63.00 target price on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and set a $74.00 price target (up previously from $73.00) on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $70.64.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

W. R. Berkley stock opened at $72.17 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $69.33 and its 200-day moving average price is $63.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36. The stock has a market cap of $27.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.44. W. R. Berkley has a fifty-two week low of $51.17 and a fifty-two week high of $76.38.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $3.01 billion for 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%. On average, equities research analysts expect that W. R. Berkley will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On W. R. Berkley

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Amundi increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 43.1% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,477,932 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $85,853,000 after acquiring an additional 444,986 shares in the last quarter. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. bought a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter valued at $982,000. Merit Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter valued at $560,000. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 12.0% in the fourth quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC now owns 4,967 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $304,000 after buying an additional 532 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Financial Strategies Group Inc. grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 3.8% during the fourth 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. 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.