Royal Bank of Canada Reaffirms “Sector Perform” Rating for W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB)

Royal Bank of Canada restated their sector perform rating on shares of W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) in a report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $63.00 price target on the insurance provider’s stock.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $64.36.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 1.1 %

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 stock has a fifty day moving average of $60.01 and a 200-day moving average of $58.48. The company has a market capitalization of $22.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.19, a PEG 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.41%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that W. R. Berkley will post 3.95 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.54%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.20%.

Institutional Trading of W. R. Berkley

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 48.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $857,814,000 after acquiring an additional 4,947,830 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 51.0% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 11,321,958 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $642,294,000 after purchasing an additional 3,825,238 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 55.1% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $417,897,000 after buying an additional 2,616,227 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 211.3% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $208,436,000 after buying an additional 2,493,758 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 47.9% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,591,353 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $429,266,000 after buying an additional 2,459,073 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.