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W.R. Berkley (WRB) Stock Moves -0.12%: What You Should Know

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W.R. Berkley (WRB - Free Report) closed at $72.99 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.12% move from the prior day. This change was narrower than the S&P 500's 0.61% loss on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.42%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.17%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the insurance company had gained 5.74% over the past month. This has outpaced the Finance sector's loss of 0.99% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.89% in that time.

W.R. Berkley will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect W.R. Berkley to post earnings of $1.06 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 3.92%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $2.92 billion, up 13.9% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $4.29 per share and revenue of $11.01 billion. These totals would mark changes of +26.18% and +18.97%, respectively, from last year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for W.R. Berkley. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.01% higher within the past month. W.R. Berkley is currently a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

In terms of valuation, W.R. Berkley is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 17.02. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 18.67, so we one might conclude that W.R. Berkley is trading at a discount comparatively.

Also, we should mention that WRB has a PEG ratio of 1.89. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. WRB's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.98 as of yesterday's close.

The Insurance - Property and Casualty industry is part of the Finance sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 204, putting it in the bottom 20% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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