W. R. Berkley (WRB) Set to Announce Earnings on Tuesday

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) is scheduled to be posting its quarterly earnings results before the market opens on Tuesday, April 23rd. Analysts expect W. R. Berkley to post earnings of $1.49 per share for the quarter. Individual that are interested in registering for the company’s earnings conference call can do so using this link.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The insurance provider reported $1.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $3.22 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.70 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.38% and a return on equity of 19.03%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.16 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect W. R. Berkley to post $6 EPS for the current fiscal year and $7 EPS for the next fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 1.8 %

WRB stock opened at $82.40 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $21.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.28, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.57. W. R. Berkley has a twelve month low of $55.50 and a twelve month high of $89.18. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $84.53 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $75.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 4th were given a $0.11 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 1st. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.53%. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 8.70%.

Institutional Trading of W. R. Berkley

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Morgan Stanley grew its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 427.2% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 10,899,093 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $790,947,000 after buying an additional 8,831,553 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 55.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,331,473 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,620,232,000 after buying an additional 8,664,707 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 65.6% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,940,770 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $795,136,000 after purchasing an additional 4,732,333 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter worth $199,140,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 119.7% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,377,556 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $224,911,000 after buying an additional 1,840,475 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WRB has been the topic of a number of research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $86.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $83.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. UBS Group raised their price target on W. R. Berkley from $81.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $71.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $79.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $89.88.

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.