W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Price Target Raised to $61.00

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) had its price target increased by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $60.00 to $61.00 in a research note released on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a market perform rating on the insurance provider’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on WRB. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Barclays dropped their target price on W. R. Berkley from $56.00 to $50.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. StockNews.com cut W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $64.36.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 1.1 %

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

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.41%. Equities research analysts predict that W. R. Berkley will post 3.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

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

Institutional Trading of W. R. Berkley

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WRB. Marshall Wace LLP purchased a new position in W. R. Berkley during the second quarter worth about $2,330,000. MBB Public Markets I LLC purchased a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,157,000. Creative Planning lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 46,434 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $3,649,000 after buying an additional 1,471 shares during the period. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the second quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Finally, Truist Financial Corp grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 3.4% during the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 811,844 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $63,795,000 after acquiring an additional 26,738 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.