W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Rating Increased to Buy at The Goldman Sachs Group

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) was upgraded by analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The brokerage currently has a $69.00 price objective on the insurance provider’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s price objective points to a potential upside of 10.81% from the company’s previous close.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. StockNews.com lowered shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $64.22.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $62.27 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.73 billion, a PE ratio of 15.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 0.62. W. R. Berkley has a fifty-two week low of $45.75 and a fifty-two week high of $62.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $58.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $56.52.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley will post 3.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On W. R. Berkley

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of WRB. MJP Associates Inc. ADV grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 4.0% during the second quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV now owns 4,915 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $386,000 after purchasing an additional 188 shares in the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 0.4% in the first quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 50,637 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $4,478,000 after buying an additional 189 shares during the last quarter. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 49.9% during the second quarter. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. now owns 580 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. increased its position in W. R. Berkley by 0.5% during the second quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 39,857 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,132,000 after buying an additional 202 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. lifted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 51.0% in the 3rd quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 619 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 209 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

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.