Zacks: Brokerages Expect W. R. Berkley Corp (WRB) Will Announce Quarterly Sales of $1.76 Billion

Wall Street brokerages forecast that W. R. Berkley Corp (NYSE:WRB) will report sales of $1.76 billion for the current quarter, according to Zacks. Two analysts have provided estimates for W. R. Berkley’s earnings, with the highest sales estimate coming in at $1.77 billion and the lowest estimate coming in at $1.75 billion. W. R. Berkley posted sales of $1.70 billion in the same quarter last year, which suggests a positive year-over-year growth rate of 3.5%. The company is expected to issue its next earnings results after the market closes on Tuesday, July 24th.

According to Zacks, analysts expect that W. R. Berkley will report full-year sales of $7.13 billion for the current fiscal year, with estimates ranging from $7.09 billion to $7.21 billion. For the next fiscal year, analysts anticipate that the company will report sales of $7.32 billion per share, with estimates ranging from $7.26 billion to $7.36 billion. Zacks Investment Research’s sales calculations are a mean average based on a survey of sell-side research firms that that provide coverage for W. R. Berkley.

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W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 24th. The insurance provider reported $1.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.11. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 6.53% and a net margin of 7.68%. The firm had revenue of $1.57 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.96 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down .2% on a year-over-year basis.

Several research firms recently issued reports on WRB. Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research report on Monday, June 18th. They issued a “sell” rating and a $74.00 target price on the stock. They noted that the move was a valuation call. Zacks Investment Research raised W. R. Berkley from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 27th. ValuEngine downgraded W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 18th. Boenning Scattergood reissued a “hold” rating on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Wednesday, April 25th. Finally, Bank of America downgraded W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $74.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, June 14th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eight have given a hold rating to the stock. W. R. Berkley currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $70.78.

In other W. R. Berkley news, EVP James G. Shiel sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.04, for a total transaction of $1,694,880.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 22.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WRB. Optimum Investment Advisors purchased a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the 1st quarter worth about $127,000. ING Groep NV purchased a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter worth about $202,000. Cobblestone Capital Advisors LLC NY purchased a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter worth about $204,000. Vident Investment Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter worth about $205,000. Finally, Natixis purchased a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the 1st quarter worth about $205,000. 71.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Shares of NYSE WRB traded up $0.29 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $73.73. The stock had a trading volume of 633,679 shares, compared to its average volume of 358,353. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. W. R. Berkley has a twelve month low of $62.00 and a twelve month high of $79.74. The company has a market cap of $8.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.97, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.81.

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 15th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This is an increase from W. R. Berkley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.14. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.81%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 14th. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.39%.

W. R. Berkley Company Profile

W. R. Berkley Corporation, an insurance holding company, operates as a commercial lines writer in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, Insurance and Reinsurance. The Insurance segment underwrites commercial insurance business, including premises operations, commercial automobile, property, products liability, and professional liability lines.

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Here's Why PagSeguro Digital Stock Is Plunging Today

What happened

Brazilian online-payment company PagSeguro Digital (NYSE:PAGS) announced on Monday that it would issue 11.55 million new shares, an increase of nearly 4% in the company's outstanding share count.

What's more, controlling shareholder Universo Online said that it is proposing to sell 21.45 million shares of PagSeguro. So that's a total of exactly 33 million shares of the company that will be sold.

Thanks to these announcements, the stock is down by about 15% as of 11 a.m. EDT on Tuesday.

Image source: Getty Images.

So what

The sale by Universo Online seems to be the most negative part of this news, as it appears that PagSeguro's controlling shareholder is in a hurry to get rid of some of its stock.

Furthermore, it's important to note that PagSeguro just went public in January. The original lock-up period (which prevents pre-existing shareholders from selling shares shortly after an IPO) hasn't even expired, but this lock-up can be released by underwriters.

As for the company's newly issued shares, it appears troubling that it needs to do a follow-on offering so soon after its IPO.

As a result of these developments, Credit Suisse downgraded the stock from neutral to underperform, and if notes from other analysts are any indication, there may be other downgrades to come in the days ahead.

Now what

To be clear, companies issue follow-on offerings for good reasons all the time, and controlling companies can certainly unload shares for reasons having nothing to do with perceived growth potential. And it's also worth noting that the stock is still up by more than 25% from its IPO price. However, the bottom line is that these two moves certainly appear negative so soon after PagSeguro's IPO.

Turkish Stocks Set for Losing Week With June Vote Looming

Turkish equities declined for a fourth day, on track for the biggest weekly decline in five weeks as investors weighed risks ahead of this month’s election after the central bank took a series of steps to stabilize the lira in May.

“The market is coming to realize that the problems are structural and thus interest rate increases aren’t enough to stem the lira decline,” Burak Cetinceker, a fund manager at Strateji Portfoy in Istanbul, said by email. “Add that elections factor, whose outcome still cannot be easily guessed; and you get a market that is all in jittery mode.”

The Borsa Istanbul 100 Index has lost 4.1 percent this week . The nation’s lenders led the drop with the Borsa Istanbul Banking Index tumbling 7.5 percent this week, on track for the most since July 2016 on a closing basis. “Even in the most liquid names in our market, we are seeing bid-ask sizes that are not normal,” Isik Okte, an investment strategist at TEB Investment, BNP Paribas’s Turkish unit.

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“On days like this, technical analysis and support levels; you throw these out the window. The market needs stabilizing bids by long-term investors, otherwise we may see local traders also panic out of positions,” Okte said.

The drop comes after the central bank’s measures to fight the country’s double-digit inflation amid the looming presidential and general elections. Even after those efforts, the lira is still down 17 percent this year, the second-worst performing emerging market currency in the world. And polls aren’t helping clarify the situation: most show that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is leading rivals, though still short of the 50 percent needed for a first-round win.

The credibility of the central bank takes time to be restored, and the outcome of the election is not as clear as originally expected, according to Michel Danechi, a fund manager at Vedra Partners in London. “Turkey is fragile with loads of dollar loans, it needs to attract foreign direct flows and in the long-term, needs structural reforms, which is not happening. All of which sends investors to the sidelines until there’s clarity after elections.”

The corporate sector has to repay more than $330 billion in foreign-currency debt, while banks have already had to restructure 78 billion liras ($17 billion) in loans because of the political and currency turmoil.

Turkish Banks Face Increasing Pile of Debt-Restructuring Demands

The benchmark equities index was trading 1.6 percent lower as of 12:13 p.m. in Istanbul, led by a 4 percent drop in Turkiye Garanti Bankasi AS, the country’s biggest bank by market capitalization.

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