W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Raised to “Buy” at The Goldman Sachs Group

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) was upgraded by research analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm presently has a $69.00 target price on the insurance provider’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s price target points to a potential upside of 7.26% from the company’s current price.

WRB has been the topic of several other research reports. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price target on 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. UBS Group raised their target price on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Truist Financial raised their target price on W. R. Berkley from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $64.22.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 2.0 %

Shares of W. R. Berkley stock opened at $64.33 on Monday. W. R. Berkley has a one year low of $45.75 and a one year high of $64.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $58.98 and its 200 day moving average is $56.67. The firm has a market cap of $24.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.48, a PEG ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 0.62.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley will post 3.94 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of W. R. Berkley

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of WRB. Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its position in W. R. Berkley by 95.4% in the first quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,430 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $392,000 after buying an additional 2,163 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its position in W. R. Berkley by 16.8% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 58,485 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $5,171,000 after buying an additional 8,427 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in W. R. Berkley by 1.6% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 274,112 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $24,243,000 after buying an additional 4,291 shares during the last quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC purchased a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the first quarter worth $207,000. Finally, B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its position in W. R. Berkley by 96.8% in the first quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 6,006 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $531,000 after buying an additional 2,954 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.