W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Sets New 1-Year High – Time to Buy?

W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $65.49 and last traded at $65.08, with a volume of 103661 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $64.33.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WRB has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Bank of America lifted their price target on W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. StockNews.com cut W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Barclays began coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $56.00 price target for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $64.22.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 1.2 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $24.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.62. 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’s 50 day moving average is $58.98 and its 200 day moving average is $56.67.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 11.96%. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.90 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.94 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.20%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On W. R. Berkley

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 48.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $857,814,000 after purchasing an additional 4,947,830 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 51.0% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 11,321,958 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $642,294,000 after acquiring an additional 3,825,238 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 211.3% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $208,436,000 after acquiring an additional 2,493,758 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in W. R. Berkley by 47.9% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,591,353 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $429,266,000 after acquiring an additional 2,459,073 shares during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its holdings 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 worth $235,701,000 after purchasing an additional 2,118,641 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

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.