W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) Given Consensus Recommendation of "Hold" by Analysts

Key Points

• W.R. Berkley Corporation has received an average analyst recommendation of "Hold", with fourteen ratings firms evaluating the stock—one sell, ten hold, two buy, and one strong buy.
• The company recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.09 per share, reflecting an annualized dividend of $0.36 and a yield of 0.5%.
• W.R. Berkley reported a Q2 EPS of $1.05, slightly beating the consensus estimate, and had revenue of $3.10 billion, matching analyst expectations.

W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) has received an average recommendation of "Hold" from the fourteen ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, ten have assigned a hold recommendation, two have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $72.5385.

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. UBS Group increased their price objective on W.R. Berkley from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $62.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Monday, July 7th. TD Cowen downgraded shares of W.R. Berkley from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $78.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of W.R. Berkley from $71.00 to $68.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Monday, September 15th. They set a "peer perform" rating on the stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WRB. Czech National Bank grew its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 6.3% during the second quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 73,255 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $5,382,000 after acquiring an additional 4,336 shares during the last quarter. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec boosted its stake in W.R. Berkley by 70.8% during the 1st quarter. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec now owns 17,197 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $1,224,000 after purchasing an additional 7,131 shares during the period. Gallacher Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in W.R. Berkley during the 2nd quarter worth $323,000. Sciencast Management LP acquired a new position in W.R. Berkley in the first quarter valued at $3,493,000. Finally, Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 75.6% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 50,503 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $2,955,000 after buying an additional 21,737 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company's stock.

W.R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of WRB opened at $75.94 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $28.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.30, a PEG ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.41. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $71.41 and its 200-day simple moving average is $70.65. W.R. Berkley has a twelve month low of $55.80 and a twelve month high of $76.38. The company has a current ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.05 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.03 by $0.02. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 18.83% and a net margin of 12.32%.The firm had revenue of $3.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.04 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that W.R. Berkley will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W.R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 22nd will be issued a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 22nd. W.R. Berkley's payout ratio is presently 8.20%.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.