W. R. Berkley’s (WRB) Sector Perform Rating Reiterated at Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed their sector perform rating on shares of W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $63.00 target price on the insurance provider’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also recently issued reports on WRB. UBS Group increased their price target on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $64.36.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $59.29 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $22.59 billion, a PE ratio of 15.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. W. R. Berkley has a twelve month low of $50.73 and a twelve month high of $65.49. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $60.01 and a 200 day simple moving average of $58.48.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley will post 3.95 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.20%.

Institutional Trading of W. R. Berkley

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. MML Investors Services LLC grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 49.0% in the 3rd quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 39,035 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,214,000 after purchasing an additional 12,830 shares in the last quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP bought a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the third quarter valued at approximately $732,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 53.6% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 737,472 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $41,837,000 after acquiring an additional 257,211 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 104.1% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,154,783 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $235,701,000 after acquiring an additional 2,118,641 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new position in W. R. Berkley in the second quarter worth $4,801,000. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

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.