W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Cut to Neutral at Brean Capital

Brean Capital downgraded shares of W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a report issued on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. Brean Capital currently has $73.00 target price on the insurance provider’s stock.

WRB has been the topic of a number of other reports. Bank of America reduced their price objective on W.R. Berkley from $69.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Barclays reissued an “underweight” rating and issued a $64.00 target price (down from $73.00) on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Thursday, January 8th. Mizuho reduced their price target on W.R. Berkley from $69.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. TD Cowen cut W.R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “sell” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $77.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $73.00 price objective on W.R. Berkley in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $69.88.

W.R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of W.R. Berkley stock opened at $64.69 on Wednesday. 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 has a 52-week low of $62.63 and a 52-week high of $78.96. The company has a fifty day moving average of $68.93 and a 200-day moving average of $71.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 0.35.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its earnings results on Monday, January 26th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.14 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $3.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.18 billion. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 18.17% and a net margin of 12.10%.W.R. Berkley’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.13 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that W.R. Berkley will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.09 per share. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 23rd. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.09%.

Insider Activity

In other W.R. Berkley news, major shareholder Sumitomo Insurance Co L. Mitsui purchased 112,176 shares of W.R. Berkley stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 3rd. The shares were bought at an average price of $72.20 per share, for a total transaction of $8,099,107.20. Following the acquisition, the insider directly owned 58,780,450 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,243,948,490. This trade represents a 0.19% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders bought 8,648,939 shares of company stock valued at $598,055,212 over the last quarter. 23.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On W.R. Berkley

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,542,919,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 37,033,581 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,596,795,000 after acquiring an additional 309,828 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in W.R. Berkley by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 14,921,114 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,143,256,000 after purchasing an additional 149,605 shares during the period. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in W.R. Berkley during the 3rd quarter valued at $682,816,000. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in W.R. Berkley in the 4th quarter worth $435,752,000. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About W.R. Berkley

W. R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE: WRB) is a publicly traded insurance holding company that underwrites and sells commercial property and casualty insurance, specialty insurance products, and reinsurance. Headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, the company operates a portfolio of underwriting businesses that focus on niche and specialty commercial risks, offering coverage tailored to industries such as transportation, construction, professional services and other commercial lines.

The company’s product mix includes primary and excess casualty, property, professional liability, environmental and other specialty lines, together with treaty and facultative reinsurance solutions.