W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Price Target Raised to $65.00 at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) had its target price increased by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $62.00 to $65.00 in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a market perform rating on the insurance provider’s stock.

WRB has been the topic of several other research reports. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $74.00 price objective (up previously from $73.00) on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $63.00 target price on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $66.90.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 5.2 %

Shares of WRB opened at $70.84 on Tuesday. W. R. Berkley has a fifty-two week low of $50.73 and a fifty-two week high of $76.38. The business has a 50-day moving average of $64.86 and a 200 day moving average of $61.55. The firm has a market cap of $26.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.40. 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 earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.07). The business had revenue of $3.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.01 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.83% and a net margin of 12.88%. As a group, research analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 7.34%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On W. R. Berkley

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WRB. Garde Capital Inc. purchased a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley during the 1st quarter valued at about $30,000. Optiver Holding B.V. grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 107.3% during the fourth quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 427 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares during the last quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley during the fourth quarter worth approximately $35,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the 4th quarter worth approximately $37,000. Finally, Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the 4th quarter valued at $42,000. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

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.