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

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB)‘s stock had its “sector perform” rating restated by Royal Bank of Canada in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $63.00 target price on the insurance provider’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 4.20% from the stock’s current price.

WRB has been the topic of several other research reports. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 25th. StockNews.com lowered shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $64.36.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 2.1 %

Shares of NYSE WRB traded up $1.26 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $60.46. The stock had a trading volume of 541,541 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,131,299. The firm has a market cap of $23.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $60.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $58.39. W. R. Berkley has a 1 year low of $50.73 and a 1 year high of $65.49.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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, equities analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley will post 3.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On W. R. Berkley

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of WRB. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 48.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $857,814,000 after acquiring an additional 4,947,830 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its stake in shares of 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 valued at $642,294,000 after purchasing an additional 3,825,238 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 47.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,591,353 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $429,266,000 after purchasing an additional 2,459,073 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 55.1% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $417,897,000 after purchasing an additional 2,616,227 shares during the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 104.1% in 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 buying an additional 2,118,641 shares during the last quarter. 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.