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

The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Monday morning, Marketbeat reports. They currently have $69.00 price target on the insurance provider’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on the stock. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. StockNews.com lowered shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Bank of America upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $64.22.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 0.9 %

NYSE:WRB opened at $64.94 on Monday. 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 firm has a market cap of $24.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.62. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $59.27 and its 200-day moving average is $56.79. W. R. Berkley has a 52 week low of $45.75 and a 52 week high of $65.49.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.90 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that W. R. Berkley will post 3.94 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 23rd were paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.20%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 48.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $857,814,000 after acquiring an additional 4,947,830 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its position in W. R. Berkley by 51.0% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 11,321,958 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $642,294,000 after purchasing an additional 3,825,238 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 47.9% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,591,353 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $429,266,000 after acquiring an additional 2,459,073 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 7,553,875 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $593,584,000 after purchasing an additional 54,530 shares during the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 104.1% in the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,154,783 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $235,701,000 after purchasing an additional 2,118,641 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.