W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Upgraded to “Buy” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Tuesday morning.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Truist Financial increased their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. UBS Group boosted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Barclays increased their price target on W. R. Berkley from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $64.36.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of W. R. Berkley stock opened at $59.29 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $60.01 and a 200-day simple moving average of $58.48. W. R. Berkley has a 52-week low of $50.73 and a 52-week high of $65.49. The firm has a market cap of $22.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.41%. On average, equities research analysts expect that W. R. Berkley will post 3.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were given a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.54%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is 8.20%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp increased its stake in W. R. Berkley by 48.6% during the third 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 shares of 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 valued at $642,294,000 after purchasing an additional 3,825,238 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 47.9% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,591,353 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $429,266,000 after purchasing an additional 2,459,073 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 55.1% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $417,897,000 after purchasing an additional 2,616,227 shares in the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted 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 worth $235,701,000 after purchasing an additional 2,118,641 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

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.