W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Rating Lowered to Strong Sell at Wolfe Research

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) was downgraded by equities researchers at Wolfe Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report issued on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

WRB has been the subject of several other reports. UBS Group set a $68.00 price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. BMO Capital Markets raised W.R. Berkley from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $64.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on W.R. Berkley from $73.00 to $72.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 6th. Weiss Ratings lowered W.R. Berkley from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald cut W.R. Berkley from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $75.00 to $71.00 in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $68.31.

W.R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WRB opened at $70.66 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The company has a market cap of $26.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.97, a P/E/G ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 0.29. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $67.30 and a 200-day simple moving average of $68.18. W.R. Berkley has a 52 week low of $62.87 and a 52 week high of $78.96.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.13 by $0.17. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.64% and a return on equity of 18.92%. The business had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.18 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.01 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 1.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that W.R. Berkley will post 4.67 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of W.R. Berkley

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Stance Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 376.1% in the third quarter. Stance Capital LLC now owns 48,119 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,687,000 after buying an additional 38,013 shares during the last quarter. Stoneridge Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley during the fourth quarter worth about $2,801,000. Generali Asset Management SPA SGR acquired a new position in W.R. Berkley in the fourth quarter worth about $1,630,000. Eagle Rock Investment Company LLC raised its stake in W.R. Berkley by 18.8% during the fourth quarter. Eagle Rock Investment Company LLC now owns 118,876 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $8,336,000 after buying an additional 18,820 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Citadel Investment Advisory Inc. grew its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 105.4% in the 4th quarter. Citadel Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 29,693 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,082,000 after acquiring an additional 15,240 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About W.R. Berkley

W. R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE: WRB) is a publicly traded insurance holding company that underwrites and sells commercial property and casualty insurance, specialty insurance products, and reinsurance. Headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, the company operates a portfolio of underwriting businesses that focus on niche and specialty commercial risks, offering coverage tailored to industries such as transportation, construction, professional services and other commercial lines.

The company’s product mix includes primary and excess casualty, property, professional liability, environmental and other specialty lines, together with treaty and facultative reinsurance solutions.