W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) Stock Has Average Target Price of $70.56 According to Analysts

Shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) have earned an average recommendation of “Reduce” from the eighteen brokerages that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Six analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nine have assigned a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $70.56.

WRB has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Oppenheimer set a $70.00 price target on W.R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Evercore reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and set a $68.00 price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Atlantic Securities set a $74.00 price objective on W.R. Berkley in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Bank of America downgraded shares of W.R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their target price for the company from $74.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Mizuho upped their target price on shares of W.R. Berkley from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 20th.

W.R. Berkley Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of WRB opened at $75.09 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.37. W.R. Berkley has a 1-year low of $62.87 and a 1-year high of $78.96. The stock has a market cap of $27.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.23. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $70.72 and a 200-day simple moving average of $69.31.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its earnings results on Monday, October 19th. The insurance provider reported $1.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.15 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $3.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.82 billion. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 19.63% and a net margin of 12.53%. W.R. Berkley’s revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.10 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that W.R. Berkley will post 4.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W.R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 21st were given a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 21st. W.R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 8.46%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On W.R. Berkley

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of WRB. Allied Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in W.R. Berkley in the 2nd quarter valued at $29,000. IFP Advisors Inc lifted its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 44.7% during the 2nd quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 466 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 144 shares during the period. Security National Bank of SO Dak acquired a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley during the second quarter worth $45,000. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt acquired a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley during the second quarter worth $49,000. Finally, Provenance Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley during the third quarter worth $70,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W.R. Berkley Company Profile

W.R. Berkley Corporation is an insurance holding company that operates through a group of specialized insurance businesses. The company primarily provides commercial property and casualty insurance, serving businesses, organizations and other commercial customers with coverage tailored to specific industries and risks.

Its products and services include workers’ compensation, commercial automobile, property, general liability, professional liability, directors and officers liability, excess and surplus lines, and other specialty insurance products.