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

W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) has earned an average recommendation of "Hold" from the twelve ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eight have issued a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $70.64.

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. Barclays lifted their price target on W. R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Bank of America reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $74.00 price target (up previously from $73.00) on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, April 1st.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On W. R. Berkley

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of WRB. Barclays PLC lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 78.6% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,469,608 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $83,372,000 after acquiring an additional 646,973 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 55.1% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $417,897,000 after acquiring an additional 2,616,227 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 102.8% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 105,775 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $6,190,000 after acquiring an additional 53,621 shares during the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 75.6% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 50,503 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $2,955,000 after acquiring an additional 21,737 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CX Institutional acquired a new stake in W. R. Berkley during the fourth quarter worth approximately $207,000. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 0.9%

Shares of WRB traded up $0.64 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $73.93. The stock had a trading volume of 1,324,358 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,760,578. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $70.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $64.05. W. R. Berkley has a twelve month low of $51.17 and a twelve month high of $76.38. The firm has a market cap of $28.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36.

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

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.