W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Raised to Buy at Bank of America

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB – Get Rating) was upgraded by equities researchers at Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has a $76.00 price objective on the insurance provider’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $77.00. Bank of America‘s target price points to a potential upside of 20.81% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the company. StockNews.com raised W. R. Berkley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 27th. BMO Capital Markets began coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Thursday, January 19th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $76.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 22nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $79.09.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 4.3 %

Shares of NYSE:WRB opened at $62.91 on Wednesday. W. R. Berkley has a 52 week low of $59.50 and a 52 week high of $76.99. The company’s 50 day moving average is $68.18 and its two-hundred day moving average is $69.75. The company has a market cap of $16.57 billion, a PE ratio of 12.71, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a current ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.92 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 18.50% and a net margin of 12.37%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.02 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that W. R. Berkley will post 4.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On W. R. Berkley

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WRB. Morgan Stanley raised its stake in W. R. Berkley by 427.2% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 10,899,093 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $790,947,000 after acquiring an additional 8,831,553 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 55.3% during the first 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 lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 65.6% during the first 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 period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in W. R. Berkley in the 4th quarter valued at $199,140,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its position in 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 buying an additional 1,840,475 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.66% of the company’s stock.

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.