W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Shares Down 4.7% on Analyst Downgrade

W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)’s share price was down 4.7% during trading on Tuesday after Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on the stock from $59.00 to $58.00. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods currently has a market perform rating on the stock. W. R. Berkley traded as low as $58.02 and last traded at $58.15. Approximately 576,473 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 68% from the average daily volume of 1,794,437 shares. The stock had previously closed at $61.03.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on WRB. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. TD Cowen initiated coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research note on Monday, July 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $68.67 price target on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, StockNews.com cut W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.08.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On W. R. Berkley

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in WRB. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 51.0% during the third quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 619 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 209 shares during the last quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 563.2% during the first quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 451 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 383 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP purchased a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley during the second quarter worth about $42,000. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 49.9% during the second quarter. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. now owns 580 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 193 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 173.0% during the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 546 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $48,000 after buying an additional 346 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $58.32 and a 200-day moving average of $55.57. The stock has a market cap of $22.68 billion, a PE ratio of 15.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.62.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 21.34% and a net margin of 12.05%. The company had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.90 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.02 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.51%.

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.