W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Announces Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.12 EPS

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) announced its earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The insurance provider reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.12, Briefing.com reports. The firm had revenue of $3.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.84 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 21.62% and a net margin of 12.05%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.14 EPS.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of WRB traded down $0.45 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $54.73. 2,092,296 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,798,606. W. R. Berkley has a 52-week low of $40.25 and a 52-week high of $59.46. The company has a market cap of $20.99 billion, a PE ratio of 14.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 0.61. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $54.33 and a two-hundred day moving average of $54.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36.

W. R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Monday, June 24th were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.58%. This is a boost from W. R. Berkley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.07. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 24th. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.51%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on WRB. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $59.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $58.67 to $55.33 in a research note on Thursday, June 13th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $55.33 to $59.33 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their target price on W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $60.07.

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.