W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.08

W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, February 24th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a dividend of 0.08 per share by the insurance provider on Wednesday, March 12th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd.

W. R. Berkley has increased its dividend payment by an average of 11.4% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 23 consecutive years. W. R. Berkley has a dividend payout ratio of 6.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect W. R. Berkley to earn $4.71 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.32 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 6.8%.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WRB opened at $62.34 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $59.27 and a 200 day moving average price of $59.31. W. R. Berkley has a 52 week low of $50.73 and a 52 week high of $65.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The company has a market cap of $23.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.29, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.67.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. Research analysts predict that W. R. Berkley will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WRB has been the subject of a number of research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $65.00 price objective for the company. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, W. R. Berkley has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $64.36.

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.