W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Receives Neutral Rating from UBS Group

UBS Group restated their neutral rating on shares of W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) in a research report report published on Friday morning, Marketbeat reports. The firm currently has a $87.00 target price on the insurance provider’s stock.

Several other research firms have also commented on WRB. Wells Fargo & Company set a $66.00 price objective on W.R. Berkley and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. BMO Capital Markets cut shares of W.R. Berkley from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $64.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Truist Financial set a $84.00 price objective on W.R. Berkley and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on W.R. Berkley from $76.00 to $75.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald set a $78.00 target price on W.R. Berkley in a report on Monday, October 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, W.R. Berkley has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $74.46.

W.R. Berkley Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of WRB traded up $0.36 on Friday, hitting $74.94. 2,048,064 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,064,218. The company has a market capitalization of $28.48 billion, a PE ratio of 15.74, a P/E/G ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.40. W.R. Berkley has a one year low of $55.97 and a one year high of $78.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a current ratio of 0.37. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $74.34 and a 200 day simple moving average of $72.51.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its earnings results on Monday, October 20th. The insurance provider reported $1.10 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $3.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.16 billion. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 19.35% and a net margin of 13.01%.The company’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.93 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that W.R. Berkley will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W.R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 22nd were given a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 22nd. W.R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 7.56%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its position in W.R. Berkley by 0.6% during the second quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 737,183 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $54,161,000 after purchasing an additional 4,423 shares in the last quarter. Czech National Bank grew its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 6.3% during the second quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 73,255 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $5,382,000 after buying an additional 4,336 shares during the last quarter. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec increased its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 70.8% in the 1st quarter. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec now owns 17,197 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,224,000 after acquiring an additional 7,131 shares during the period. Atria Investments Inc raised its stake in W.R. Berkley by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 100,631 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $7,393,000 after acquiring an additional 3,750 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gallacher Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in W.R. Berkley during the 2nd quarter worth about $323,000. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.