W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Upgraded by Mizuho to “Hold” Rating

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) was upgraded by equities researchers at Mizuho to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Wells Fargo & Company set a $66.00 price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $87.00 price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Friday, November 7th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. BMO Capital Markets cut shares of W.R. Berkley from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $64.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on W.R. Berkley from $76.00 to $75.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $73.93.

W.R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of WRB opened at $68.52 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $74.20 and a 200 day moving average of $72.75. The company has a current ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The company has a market capitalization of $26.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.39, a PEG ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 0.37. W.R. Berkley has a 12 month low of $55.97 and a 12 month high of $78.96.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 20th. The insurance provider reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $3.77 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.16 billion. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 18.86% and a net margin of 13.01%.W.R. Berkley’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.93 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that W.R. Berkley will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On W.R. Berkley

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP increased its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 2.2% during the third quarter. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP now owns 153,560 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $11,766,000 after buying an additional 3,335 shares during the last quarter. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL bought a new position in W.R. Berkley in the third quarter worth approximately $734,000. Allworth Financial LP increased its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 3,328 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $255,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares during the period. Groupama Asset Managment bought a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley during the 3rd quarter worth $218,000. Finally, CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC increased its position in W.R. Berkley by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 41,757 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $3,199,000 after purchasing an additional 865 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.