# W. R. Berkley (WRB.US)

Canonical: https://gigainvestors.com/s/WRB

Analysis as of: 2026-10-16T07:33:11.280Z. Financial observations: FY2015–FY2025.

Listing currency: USD. Reporting currency: USD.

## Verdict

A wonderful business at too high a price

Quality tests for Buy: pass (profit record: pass; earnings resilience is evidence only). Published buy qualification: no.

Share price: $73.97 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

Estimated value: low $42.09 per share, central $52.61 per share, high $70.15 per share. Buy at or below the central value $52.61 per share. Valuation as of 2026-10-16T07:33:11.280Z; scenarios are not confidence intervals.

Expected annual return: 8.8% at the stated quote. About 8.8% a year at today's price (required return 10.0%). required return 10.0% a year (10% floor; US 10-year bond 5.1% + 4 points).

## Checklist

### understandable: pass

- Financial history: 10 years

- Profitable years in the last ten: 10

- Required profitable years: 8

- Return on common equity variation (informational): 0.30×

Chart: Net income; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: $602M

- FY2017: $549M

- FY2018: $641M

- FY2019: $682M

- FY2020: $531M

- FY2021: $1.0B

- FY2022: $1.4B

- FY2023: $1.4B

- FY2024: $1.8B

- FY2025: $1.8B

### moat: pass

- Common book per share

- Underwriting economics assessed through return on tangible common equity

- Bank / P&C ROTE, median of available years: 15.0%

- Required median return: 12.0%

- Return uses tangible common equity: Yes

- Bank ROTE, second-lowest year: 11.7%

- Years with reported combined ratio: 0

Chart: Return on tangible common equity; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: 12.5%

- FY2017: 11.8%

- FY2018: 12.4%

- FY2019: 11.7%

- FY2020: 9.0%

- FY2021: 17.6%

- FY2022: 23.8%

- FY2023: 21.5%

- FY2024: 24.2%

- FY2025: 20.9%

### economics: pass

- Common book per share

- Book value per share + reinvested dividends, annualized return: 13.8%

- Book return interval: 10 years

- Starting book value per share: $10.54

- Ending book value per share: $24.26

Chart: Annual book + dividend return; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: 14.3%

- FY2017: 11.3%

- FY2018: 5.0%

- FY2019: 16.7%

- FY2020: 7.9%

- FY2021: 12.4%

- FY2022: 5.1%

- FY2023: 20.6%

- FY2024: 21.7%

- FY2025: 24.9%

### management: pass

- Common book per share

- Diluted shares, 10-year annual growth: -0.9%

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: -1.2%

- Share growth excluding flagged crisis recapitalisations: -0.9%

- Five-year share growth excluding flagged crisis recapitalisations: -1.2%

- Flagged crisis recapitalisations: 0

- Book created / earnings retained after dividends and buybacks: 1.12×

- Book value created per share: $13.72

- Earnings retained per share after dividends and buybacks: $12.21

Chart: Shares (first year = 100); fiscal year observations.

- FY2015: 100

- FY2016: 99

- FY2017: 99

- FY2018: 99

- FY2019: 99

- FY2020: 97

- FY2021: 96

- FY2022: 95

- FY2023: 93

- FY2024: 92

- FY2025: 91

### accounting: pass

- Financial accounting warning count: 0

- Known restatement years: 0

## Holders

- [Thomas Gayner](https://gigainvestors.com/MKL): tracked 13F investor; follow the investor page for holding quarter and amounts.

- [Bruce Berkowitz](https://gigainvestors.com/fairx): tracked 13F investor; follow the investor page for holding quarter and amounts.

## Price story

The price assumes profits grow 7.2% a year forever · "WRB's Underwriting Discipline to Sustain Margins Amid Soft Pricing" (finance.yahoo.com, Aug 2026) · net income +1.3%

Story as of 2026-10-16T09:59:52.811Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

The price assumes profits grow 7.2% a year forever

- 2026-07-21: WRB Q2 Earnings Beat Estimates on Higher Premiums, Investment Income ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/wrb-q2-earnings-beat-estimates-172400485.html))

### Net income · FY2025

net income +1.3%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/11544/000001154426000005/wrb-20251231.htm; observed 2026-02-27.

- FY2016: $602M 

- FY2017: $549M 

- FY2018: $641M 

- FY2019: $682M 

- FY2020: $531M 

- FY2021: $1.0B 

- FY2022: $1.4B 

- FY2023: $1.4B 

- FY2024: $1.8B 

- FY2025: $1.8B 

## Owner memo

Memo as of 2026-10-16T08:06:05.509Z.

### How it makes money

Operates in insurance property & casualty; annual sales are USD 14.7 billion.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/11544/000001154426000005/wrb-20251231.htm#000001154426000005 (filed 2026-02-27); FY2025: revenue 14707856000.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); WRB.US: W. R. Berkley Corporation, an insurance holding company, operates as a commercial line writer worldwide. The company operates through Insurance and Reinsurance & Monoline Excess segments. The Insurance segment underwrites commercial insurance business, including excess and surplus lines, admitted lines, and specialty personal lines. This segment also provides accident and health insurance and reinsurance products; insurance for commercial risks; casualty and specialty environmental products; insurance coverages for fine arts and jewelry exposures; excess liability and inland marine coverage for small to medium-sized insureds; and commercial general liability, umbrella, professional liability, directors and officers, commercial property, and surety products, as well as products for technology, and life sciences and travel industries. In addition, it offers cyber risk solutions; crime and fidelity insurance products; medical professional coverages; workers' compensation insurance products; management liability and general insurance products; personal lines insurance solutions, including home, condo/co-op, auto, fine arts and collectibles, liability, collector vehicle, and recreational marine; law enforcement, public officials and educator's legal, and employment practices liability, as well as incidental medical, property, and crime insurance products; at-risk and alternative risk insurance program management services; professional liability; energy and marine risks; and insurance products to the Lloyd's marketplace. The Reinsurance & Monoline Excess segment provides treaty and facultative reinsurance solutions; property and casualty reinsurance products; facultative reinsurance products include automatic, semi-automatic, and individual risk assumed reinsurance; and turnkey products, such as cyber, employment practices liability insurance, liquor liability insurance and violent events. The company was founded in 1967 and is headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut.

### Why customers stay

It earns 15% on shareholders’ money, excluding intangible assets.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-27); 10-year return on tangible equity observations [[2016,0.12486083438176446],[2017,0.1178903009209113],[2018,0.12415657685008605],[2019,0.11744924079708771],[2020,0.09027305954684343],[2021,0.17607238169628328],[2022,0.2381413599520083],[2023,0.21519093036932027],[2024,0.24192074143025033],[2025,0.20895324511686814]]; median 0.15046660803902387. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Where the cash goes

Paid dividends in 10 of 10 years; bought back USD 270.2 million of shares.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-27); Dividend observations: [[2016,183999000],[2017,188199000],[2018,254951000],[2019,308191000],[2020,84147000],[2021,355736000],[2022,235192000],[2023,501456000],[2024,531953000],[2025,700269000]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/api/fundamentals/WRB.US.json#2025-12-31 (filed 2026-02-27); FY2025: cash repurchases 270221000 USD.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 26.4% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); WRB.US SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 26.361 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-16.

### What could break it

"Our actual claims losses may exceed our reserves for claims" (SEC filing, Feb 2026)

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/11544/000001154426000005/wrb-20251231.htm (filed 2026-02-27); Our actual claims losses may exceed our reserves for claims

### What the price says

The price assumes profits grow 7.2% a year forever.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-27); Price 73.97; FX 1; original perpetual distributable cash 2.104581725903776; discount 0.1; growth 0.07154817188179295. Same book-value model and 4× ceiling; no ten-year operating fade applies. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

## Monthly share-price history (USD per share)

- 2016-10: $16.92 per share

- 2016-11: $18.31 per share

- 2016-12: $19.71 per share

- 2017-01: $19.91 per share

- 2017-02: $21.04 per share

- 2017-03: $20.93 per share

- 2017-04: $20.14 per share

- 2017-05: $20.44 per share

- 2017-06: $20.49 per share

- 2017-07: $20.44 per share

- 2017-08: $19.75 per share

- 2017-09: $19.77 per share

- 2017-10: $20.32 per share

- 2017-11: $20.48 per share

- 2017-12: $21.23 per share

- 2018-01: $21.62 per share

- 2018-02: $20.26 per share

- 2018-03: $21.54 per share

- 2018-04: $22.09 per share

- 2018-05: $22.66 per share

- 2018-06: $21.45 per share

- 2018-07: $22.46 per share

- 2018-08: $23.19 per share

- 2018-09: $23.68 per share

- 2018-10: $22.49 per share

- 2018-11: $23.34 per share

- 2018-12: $21.90 per share

- 2019-01: $22.78 per share

- 2019-02: $24.79 per share

- 2019-03: $25.10 per share

- 2019-04: $27.24 per share

- 2019-05: $27.64 per share

- 2019-06: $29.30 per share

- 2019-07: $30.84 per share

- 2019-08: $31.67 per share

- 2019-09: $32.10 per share

- 2019-10: $31.07 per share

- 2019-11: $30.22 per share

- 2019-12: $30.71 per share

- 2020-01: $32.68 per share

- 2020-02: $29.84 per share

- 2020-03: $23.19 per share

- 2020-04: $24.00 per share

- 2020-05: $25.76 per share

- 2020-06: $25.46 per share

- 2020-07: $27.44 per share

- 2020-08: $27.58 per share

- 2020-09: $27.18 per share

- 2020-10: $26.72 per share

- 2020-11: $28.95 per share

- 2020-12: $29.52 per share

- 2021-01: $27.62 per share

- 2021-02: $30.81 per share

- 2021-03: $33.49 per share

- 2021-04: $35.43 per share

- 2021-05: $34.66 per share

- 2021-06: $33.08 per share

- 2021-07: $32.52 per share

- 2021-08: $33.47 per share

- 2021-09: $32.52 per share

- 2021-10: $35.38 per share

- 2021-11: $34.06 per share

- 2021-12: $36.62 per share

- 2022-01: $37.56 per share

- 2022-02: $40.13 per share

- 2022-03: $44.39 per share

- 2022-04: $44.33 per share

- 2022-05: $47.42 per share

- 2022-06: $45.51 per share

- 2022-07: $41.69 per share

- 2022-08: $43.20 per share

- 2022-09: $43.05 per share

- 2022-10: $49.59 per share

- 2022-11: $50.85 per share

- 2022-12: $48.38 per share

- 2023-01: $46.76 per share

- 2023-02: $44.13 per share

- 2023-03: $41.51 per share

- 2023-04: $39.28 per share

- 2023-05: $37.12 per share

- 2023-06: $39.71 per share

- 2023-07: $41.13 per share

- 2023-08: $41.24 per share

- 2023-09: $42.33 per share

- 2023-10: $44.95 per share

- 2023-11: $48.37 per share

- 2023-12: $47.15 per share

- 2024-01: $54.59 per share

- 2024-02: $55.73 per share

- 2024-03: $58.96 per share

- 2024-04: $51.31 per share

- 2024-05: $54.02 per share

- 2024-06: $52.39 per share

- 2024-07: $55.13 per share

- 2024-08: $59.70 per share

- 2024-09: $56.73 per share

- 2024-10: $57.17 per share

- 2024-11: $64.55 per share

- 2024-12: $58.52 per share

- 2025-01: $58.83 per share

- 2025-02: $63.08 per share

- 2025-03: $71.16 per share

- 2025-04: $71.69 per share

- 2025-05: $74.69 per share

- 2025-06: $73.47 per share

- 2025-07: $68.81 per share

- 2025-08: $71.69 per share

- 2025-09: $76.62 per share

- 2025-10: $71.34 per share

- 2025-11: $77.69 per share

- 2025-12: $70.12 per share

- 2026-01: $68.58 per share

- 2026-02: $71.70 per share

- 2026-03: $66.28 per share

- 2026-04: $66.83 per share

- 2026-05: $63.54 per share

- 2026-06: $70.53 per share

- 2026-07: $72.54 per share

- 2026-08: $67.56 per share

- 2026-09: $67.54 per share

- 2026-10: $73.97 per share

## Annual estimated value (USD per share)

- FY2016: low $14.09 per share, central $17.61 per share, high $23.48 per share

- FY2017: low $13.08 per share, central $16.35 per share, high $21.80 per share

- FY2018: low $15.03 per share, central $18.79 per share, high $25.05 per share

- FY2019: low $16.81 per share, central $21.02 per share, high $28.02 per share

- FY2020: low $16.93 per share, central $21.16 per share, high $28.21 per share

- FY2021: low $17.45 per share, central $21.81 per share, high $29.08 per share

- FY2022: low $17.85 per share, central $22.31 per share, high $29.75 per share

- FY2023: low $21.13 per share, central $26.41 per share, high $35.21 per share

- FY2024: low $24.29 per share, central $30.36 per share, high $40.48 per share

- FY2025: low $38.53 per share, central $48.17 per share, high $64.22 per share

Historical values use today's bond yield for every fiscal year

Historical values use today's FX rate into trading currency for every fiscal year

Historical values use current restated fundamentals and current commodity classification; they are not point-in-time estimates

## Sources

[Original 10-K filing](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/11544/000001154426000005/wrb-20251231.htm); period 2025-12-31, filed 2026-02-27.

Estimates depend on assumptions and are not guarantees or investment advice. Underlying data remains subject to its source licenses; public reading does not grant bulk redistribution rights.