Share count
13Mpeak FY2016
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MKL, Markel Group Inc.
Insurance — Property & Casualty financial
An insurance business, read on its underwriting result, the combined ratio, and the float it invests, rather than an earnings multiple.
The business
What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.
Revenue · FY2025
$15.5B
+4.7% YoY · 10% 5-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average
Revenue $3.6B +0.1% vs yr-ago qtr
Operating margin −7.7% yr-ago 8.0%
Net income ($204M) yr-ago $129M
Net margin −5.8% yr-ago 3.6%
The business in brief
read the 10-K →What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.
- What moves the needle
- Underwriting discipline and the float. What decides it: whether the combined ratio stays below 100% so the policies make money on their own, how large the float is against equity, and what that float earns once it is invested. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on pricing power & competition, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
- Is it a good business?
- Claims run 61% of premiums, with underwriting costs on top. Book value per share, the measure Berkshire is judged on, has compounded about 10% a year across the record. The float runs about 1.7× equity, the leverage that magnifies both the underwriting and the investing. Whether the discipline holds through a soft market, and how the float is invested, are what the 10-K decides.
Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.
The record
Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.
The record, 2016–2025
realized figures from each filing · older years to the left| 2016’16 | 2017’17 | 2018’18 | 2019’19 | 2020’20 | 2021’21 | 2022’22 | 2023’23 | 2024’24 | 2025’25 | TTMTTMMar 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | |||||||||||
| $5.6B | $6.1B | $6.8B | $9.5B | $9.7B | $12.8B | $11.7B | $14.3B | $14.8B | $15.5B | $15.5B | RevenueRevenue |
| $3.9B | $4.2B | $4.7B | $5.0B | $5.6B | $6.5B | $7.6B | $8.3B | $8.4B | $8.7B | $8.7B | Premiums earnedPremiums |
| $373M | $406M | $434M | $452M | $376M | $367M | $447M | $735M | $920M | $970M | $989M | Investment incomeInv. inc. |
| $456M | $395M | ($128M) | $1.8B | $816M | $2.4B | ($216M) | $2.0B | $2.7B | $2.1B | $1.8B | Net incomeNet inc. |
| 27% | — | — | 21% | 17% | 22% | — | 22% | 22% | 22% | 22% | Effective tax rateTax rate |
| Cash flow & returns | |||||||||||
| $535M | $859M | $893M | $1.3B | $1.7B | $2.3B | $2.7B | $2.8B | $2.6B | $2.8B | $2.4B | Operating cash flowOp. cash |
| $471M | $784M | $786M | $1.2B | $1.6B | $2.1B | $2.5B | $2.5B | $2.3B | $2.6B | $2.2B | Owner earningsOwner earn. |
| 53% | 67% | 60% | 57% | 62% | 55% | 59% | 64% | — | — | 61% | Loss ratioLoss |
| 5% | 4% | -1% | 16% | 6% | 16% | -2% | 13% | 16% | 11% | 10% | Return on equityROE |
| 5% | 4% | −1% | 16% | 6% | 16% | −2% | 13% | 16% | 11% | 10% | Retained to equityRetained/eq |
| Balance sheet | |||||||||||
| $10.1B | $13.6B | $14.3B | $14.7B | $16.2B | $18.2B | $20.9B | $23.5B | $26.6B | $30.9B | $31.4B | Float (reserves)Float |
| $25.9B | $32.8B | $33.3B | $37.5B | $41.7B | $48.5B | $49.8B | $55.0B | $61.9B | $68.9B | $68.6B | Total assetsAssets |
| $4.1B | $4.4B | $3.1B | $4.3B | $6.4B | $5.8B | $6.8B | $6.3B | $6.2B | $6.0B | $5.7B | Cash & investmentsCash+inv |
| $8.5B | $9.5B | $9.1B | $11.1B | $12.8B | $14.7B | $13.2B | $15.0B | $16.9B | $18.6B | $18.1B | Shareholders’ equityEquity |
| Per share | |||||||||||
| 14.1M | 14.0M | 13.9M | 13.9M | 13.8M | 13.8M | 13.6M | 13.4M | 13.0M | 12.6M | 12.6M | Shares out (diluted)Shares |
| $32.37 | $28.22 | $-9.21 | $128.99 | $59.03 | $175.59 | $-15.93 | $149.20 | $210.65 | $166.59 | $140.38 | EPS (diluted)EPS |
| $33.45 | $55.97 | $56.47 | $82.90 | $118.37 | $154.26 | $180.76 | $188.98 | $179.36 | $201.96 | $173.20 | Owner earnings / shareOE/sh |
| $601.00 | $678.58 | $652.21 | $797.56 | $925.98 | $1066.47 | $968.42 | $1120.04 | $1297.13 | $1470.41 | $1435.63 | Book value / shareBVPS |
Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded
| 9-yr | 5-yr | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue / share | +13.3%/yr | +11.7%/yr |
| Owner earnings / share | +22.1%/yr | +11.3%/yr |
| EPS | +20.0%/yr | +23.1%/yr |
| Capital spending / share | +15.4%/yr | +17.4%/yr |
| Book value / share | +10.5%/yr | +9.7%/yr |
The record, charted
FY2016–2025Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.
Revenue
$15.5Blow FY2016
Quality & stewardship
Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.
Owner’s Scorecard
FY2025 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →
Is it a good business?
- Loss ratio 61%Claims share of premiumsClaims incurred $5.3B ÷ premiums earned $8.7B
What this means
Claims as a share of premiums (the expense side was not cleanly tagged, so we show the loss ratio alone rather than a full combined ratio). Lower is better; the rest of underwriting cost sits on top of this.
- Return on equity 11%SolidNet income $2.1B ÷ equity $18.6BIndustry peers: median 10%
What this means
What it earns on shareholders' capital, the underwriting result plus what the float earns invested. Durably above the ~10% cost of equity is what compounds book value.
The float
- Float (reserves) $30.9B1.7× equityLoss and claim reserves $30.9B, 1.7× equity
What this means
Money held against future claims and invested in the meantime. Buffett's insight was that good underwriting makes this float cost less than nothing, a pool of other people's money the owners earn on. Measured here from loss and claim reserves only; it excludes unearned premiums and funds held, so the true float is somewhat larger than shown. The larger it is against equity, the more that leverage works, for better or worse.
- Investment income $970M3.1% on the floatNet investment income $970M, 3.1% on the float
What this means
What the float and capital earned this year. This is the second engine: an insurer that breaks even on underwriting still wins if the float is large and invested well.
Does AI threaten the moat?
Low contestabilityThe moat is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded, the kind AI cuts costs within but does not contest.
In its own filing Framed as a capability
The filing positions AI as something the company uses, not something it fears.
“There is increasing focus by traditional insurance industry participants, technology companies, insurtech start-up companies, and others on using technology and innovation, including artificial intelligence, to simplify and improve the customer experience, increase efficiencies, …”
AI is unlikely to contest a moat that is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded; here it reads more as a cost tool than a threat, and the company is using it that way.
Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.
All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.
Lease obligations
the lease note, SEC EDGAR →Debt by another name. What the business owes on the property, aircraft, stores and equipment it rents rather than owns is a fixed claim due on a schedule; added back to the debt, it is the true leverage. That ladder, and what it adds to the debt on the page above.
Lease payments by year, scaled to the largest; “later” is everything beyond year five, shown apart. These are the contractual cash payments, before the interest the filing imputes back out to the balance-sheet liability.
Due in the next 12 months$140Ma fixed cash payment, owed whether or not the business has a good year
Total lease payments$872Mevery year plus the tail, undiscounted: the full cash the leases will take
On the balance sheet$710Mthe present value of those payments, the recognised lease liability
True leverage: debt plus leases
On-balance-sheet debt$4.3B
Lease obligations (present value)$710M
Total fixed claims on the business$5.0B
Counting the leases the way Buffett does, the fixed claims on this business come to $5.0B, of which the leases are 14%. The lease wall above and the debt schedule together are the calendar of what must be paid, and when.
Lease ladder read from the ASC 842 tags in the company’s Dec 31, 2025 annual report and reconciled: the yearly buckets sum to the undiscounted total, which less the imputed interest equals the balance-sheet liability; a ladder that doesn’t tie out is withheld.
Management, ownership & pay
read the proxy →From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid, beside what the business earned for its owners in the same years.
| Fiscal year | Chief executive | Pay, as filed | “Actually paid” | Owner earnings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Richard R. Whitt, III | $4.6M | $5.6M | $2.1B |
| 2021 | Thomas S. Gayner | $4.6M | $5.6M | $2.1B |
| 2022 | Richard R. Whitt, III | $4.0M | $4.4M | $2.5B |
| 2022 | Thomas S. Gayner | $4.0M | $4.4M | $2.5B |
| 2023 | — | $8.1M | $8.6M | $2.5B |
| 2024 | — | $9.7M | $11.9M | $2.3B |
| 2025 | — | $14.1M | $18.3M | $2.6B |
Both pay figures are the company’s own, from the pay-versus-performance table its proxy statement files. “As filed” is the Summary Compensation Table total: salary, bonus, and equity awards at their value on the day of grant. “Actually paid” is the SEC’s prescribed recalculation, which re-marks those equity awards to what they became as they vested; it can swing far above or below the filed figure in either direction, and negative years occur. Owner earnings are the whole business's, from the record above, for the same fiscal years. A dash under the name means the filing tags the figure without naming the officer.
- Insider ownership1.1%
The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.
What an owner would ask, FY2025
read the 10-K →- Which reported numbers are a judgment call?Management names Insurance reserves as critical estimates
each rests partly on management's judgment; the filing's note sets out the assumptionsverify →
The questions the record and the charts do not answer on their own; each carries the figure and the place to look.
Peers, Insurance — Property & Casualty
The same industry, side by side on the underwriting lens. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.
| Company | Revenue | Combined ratio | Loss ratio | ROE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACGLArch Capital | $19.9B | 88% | 55% | 13% |
| LLoews Corp. | $18.5B | 149% | 76% | 6% |
| EGEverest Group | $17.7B | 100% | 70% | 9% |
| MKLMarkel Group Inc. | $15.5B | — | 59% | 9% |
| CNACNA Financial Corporation | $15.0B | 127% | 76% | 8% |
| WRBW.R. Berkley | $14.7B | — | 62% | 14% |
| RNRRenaissanceRe | $12.8B | 94% | 60% | 10% |
| CINFCincinnati Financial Corporation | $12.6B | 98% | 66% | 14% |
| Group median | — | — | 64% | 10% |
The price
What a price has to assume.
What the price implies
price / tangible bookAn insurer is worth a multiple of its tangible book value, and the multiple it deserves is set by the return it earns on that book. Type today’s price; we show what you would be paying against what Markel Group Inc.’s record justifies.
$
The assumptions
Tangible book / share, delivered13%/yr’20→’25
The justified multiple is (return on tangible equity − growth) ÷ (cost of equity − growth). An insurer earning exactly its cost of equity is worth about one times tangible book; the premium above that prices each point of durable excess return. A higher cost of equity lowers the justified multiple for an insurer.
Enter a price above to run it.
Price / tangible book—
Justified by the return—
Normalized return on tangible equity12%
Price / book—
Earnings yield—
P/E (3-yr avg ’23–’25)—
Graham’s price gate—
Graham applied the same standards to financial enterprises (Intelligent Investor ch.14): the 15× multiple cap on averaged earnings, and P/E times price-to-book at most 22.5. The gate marks the bargain-hunter’s floor, not a verdict.
A dated snapshot of the price you typed, the assumptions you set, and what the page showed for them. A snapshot is never edited after it is saved. Your notebook is yours alone — the commitment states what is stored and what we will never do.
Tangible book $13.8B on 13M shares, a 12% normalized return on it. The dials set the multiple such a return would justify; your price sets the multiple you are paying. It assumes the insurer keeps earning that return; an underwriting cycle, a reserve shortfall or a bad year on the float changes it, which is what the record and the 10-K are for.
Cite: Owner Scorecard, "Markel Group Inc. (MKL), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/MKL, data as of 2026-07-09.
Manual order: ← MKC its page in the Manual MKSI →
Industry order: ← MHNC the Insurance — Property & Casualty chapter MTG →