Analysts Set W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) PT at $70.64

Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) have received an average rating of “Hold” from the twelve ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $70.64.

WRB has been the topic of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of W. R. Berkley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $74.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 11th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On W. R. Berkley

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,436,473 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,132,262,000 after purchasing an additional 529,294 shares in the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 0.6% during the first quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 11,787,639 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $838,808,000 after buying an additional 65,163 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in W. R. Berkley by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,694,703 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $449,168,000 after acquiring an additional 103,350 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 55.1% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $417,897,000 after buying an additional 2,616,227 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in W. R. Berkley by 21.8% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,022,039 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $357,368,000 after acquiring an additional 900,071 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WRB opened at $74.15 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $69.93 and its 200-day moving average is $63.90. W. R. Berkley has a twelve month low of $51.17 and a twelve month high of $76.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $28.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.99, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.44.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by ($0.07). The business had revenue of $3.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.01 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. Sell-side analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About W. R. Berkley

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.