Barclays Begins Coverage on W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB)

Barclays started coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) in a research report released on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage issued an underweight rating and a $56.00 target price on the insurance provider’s stock.

Several other research firms also recently commented on WRB. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. StockNews.com downgraded W. R. Berkley from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a sector perform rating and issued a $57.00 price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered W. R. Berkley from a buy rating to a neutral rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $58.67 to $55.33 in a report on Thursday, June 13th. Finally, TD Cowen began coverage on W. R. Berkley in a report on Monday, July 1st. They issued a buy rating and a $68.67 price target for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $59.67.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of WRB opened at $58.69 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a current ratio of 0.38. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $56.75 and a two-hundred day moving average of $55.33. The stock has a market cap of $22.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.61, a P/E/G ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 0.62. W. R. Berkley has a one year low of $40.86 and a one year high of $61.28.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The insurance provider reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.12. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 21.34% and a net margin of 12.05%. The firm had revenue of $3.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.84 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.14 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that W. R. Berkley will post 4.03 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 24th were issued a $0.08 dividend. This is a positive change from W. R. Berkley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.07. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 24th. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.51%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in WRB. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the 2nd quarter valued at $4,801,000. Delphi Management Inc. MA lifted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 1.6% during the second quarter. Delphi Management Inc. MA now owns 21,217 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,667,000 after purchasing an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. Granite Bay Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the second quarter valued at about $564,000. Truist Financial Corp increased its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 26,738 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brandes Investment Partners LP raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 18.6% during the 2nd quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP now owns 699,387 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $54,997,000 after purchasing an additional 109,864 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.