Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) Stock

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) had its price target raised by investment analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $73.00 to $76.00 in a report released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “market perform” rating on the insurance provider’s stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods’ price objective would suggest a potential upside of 8.25% from the company’s current price.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Wells Fargo & Company set a $66.00 target price on W.R. Berkley and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $87.00 price target on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Friday, November 7th. BMO Capital Markets cut shares of W.R. Berkley from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $64.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Barclays reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $73.00 target price on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $84.00 price target on shares of W.R. Berkley and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $74.00.

W.R. Berkley Stock Performance

WRB traded down $0.50 on Tuesday, hitting $70.21. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 648,110 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,886,872. W.R. Berkley has a 12 month low of $55.97 and a 12 month high of $78.96. The firm has a market cap of $26.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $72.60 and its 200-day simple moving average is $72.44.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its earnings results on Monday, October 20th. The insurance provider reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $3.77 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.16 billion. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 18.86% and a net margin of 13.01%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.93 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that W.R. Berkley will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Sumitomo Insurance Co L. Mitsui bought 237,734 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 2nd. The stock was bought at an average price of $69.35 per share, for a total transaction of $16,486,852.90. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 50,764,245 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,520,500,390.75. This represents a 0.47% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In the last ninety days, insiders purchased 1,957,657 shares of company stock valued at $137,235,699. Insiders own 23.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Board of the Pension Protection Fund grew its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 92.9% during the 4th quarter. Board of the Pension Protection Fund now owns 24,300 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,704,000 after purchasing an additional 11,700 shares during the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its position in W.R. Berkley by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 14,191 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $995,000 after buying an additional 714 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 12,354 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $866,000 after buying an additional 181 shares during the last quarter. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL purchased a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley in the third quarter worth about $734,000. Finally, Triumph Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley in the third quarter worth about $35,000. 68.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About W.R. Berkley

W. R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE: WRB) is a publicly traded insurance holding company that underwrites and sells commercial property and casualty insurance, specialty insurance products, and reinsurance. Headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, the company operates a portfolio of underwriting businesses that focus on niche and specialty commercial risks, offering coverage tailored to industries such as transportation, construction, professional services and other commercial lines.

The company’s product mix includes primary and excess casualty, property, professional liability, environmental and other specialty lines, together with treaty and facultative reinsurance solutions.