W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Upgraded by Bank of America to Buy

Bank of America upgraded shares of W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB – Get Rating) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research report released on Wednesday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage currently has $76.00 target price on the insurance provider’s stock, down from their previous target price of $77.00.

WRB has been the topic of a number of other reports. BMO Capital Markets began coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Thursday, January 19th. They set a market perform rating and a $76.00 price target on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of W. R. Berkley from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note on Friday, January 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 22nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $79.09.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

W. R. Berkley stock opened at $61.00 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a current ratio of 0.38. W. R. Berkley has a one year low of $59.50 and a one year high of $76.99. The company has a market cap of $16.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 0.62. The business has a fifty day moving average of $67.92 and a two-hundred day moving average of $69.75.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 26th. The insurance provider reported $1.16 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.09. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.37% and a return on equity of 18.50%. The business had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.92 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.02 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that W. R. Berkley will post 4.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 8th. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.66%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.08%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On W. R. Berkley

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of WRB. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 427.2% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 10,899,093 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $790,947,000 after purchasing an additional 8,831,553 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 55.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,331,473 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,620,232,000 after purchasing an additional 8,664,707 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 65.6% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,940,770 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $795,136,000 after purchasing an additional 4,732,333 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter worth about $199,140,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 119.7% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,377,556 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $224,911,000 after purchasing an additional 1,840,475 shares during the last quarter. 71.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

W. R. Berkley Company Profile

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W.R. Berkley Corp. is an insurance holding company, which engages in the property casualty insurance business. It operates through the following segments: Insurance and Reinsurance & Monoline Excess. The Insurance segment includes excess and surplus lines, admitted lines, and specialty personal lines throughout the United States, as well as insurance businesses in the United Kingdom, Continental Europe, South America, Canada, Mexico, Scandinavia, Asia, and Australia.