W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Shares Down 5%

Shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) dropped 5% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $79.23 and last traded at $79.23. Approximately 405,602 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 66% from the average daily volume of 1,188,741 shares. The stock had previously closed at $83.43.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WRB has been the subject of several research reports. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $83.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $71.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $79.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. StockNews.com downgraded W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $89.88.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $20.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $84.59 and a 200-day simple moving average of $76.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The insurance provider reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $3.22 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.70 billion. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.38% and a return on equity of 19.03%. W. R. Berkley’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.16 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 4th were paid a dividend of $0.11 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 1st. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.55%. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.70%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in WRB. Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 16.3% during the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 5,763 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $510,000 after purchasing an additional 806 shares during the last quarter. Accurate Wealth Management LLC grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 3.9% during the first quarter. Accurate Wealth Management LLC now owns 31,971 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,634,000 after buying an additional 1,201 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 3.7% during the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 55,818 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $4,937,000 after buying an additional 1,982 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates raised its position in W. R. Berkley by 8.1% in the first quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 809,526 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $71,594,000 after acquiring an additional 60,519 shares during the period. Finally, Arthur M. Cohen & Associates LLC boosted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 11.7% in the first quarter. Arthur M. Cohen & Associates LLC now owns 3,350 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $296,000 after acquiring an additional 350 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.