W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Price Target Raised to $75.00

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) had its price target lifted by equities research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $63.00 to $75.00 in a research note issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “equal weight” rating on the insurance provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 1.52% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on WRB. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on W. R. Berkley from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $63.00 price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Barclays upped their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded W. R. Berkley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $69.22.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

WRB traded up $0.60 during trading on Monday, reaching $73.88. The stock had a trading volume of 309,119 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,762,421. The firm has a market capitalization of $28.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.44. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. W. R. Berkley has a 1-year low of $51.17 and a 1-year high of $76.38. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $68.49 and a two-hundred day moving average of $63.23.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.07). W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. The business had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.01 billion. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of W. R. Berkley

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of WRB. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 78.6% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,469,608 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $83,372,000 after buying an additional 646,973 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 55.1% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $417,897,000 after purchasing an additional 2,616,227 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 12.6% in the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 13,074 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $765,000 after purchasing an additional 1,468 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in W. R. Berkley during the fourth quarter worth $560,000. Finally, HB Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in W. R. Berkley by 10.5% in the fourth quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,066 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $355,000 after acquiring an additional 578 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.