Share count
99Mpeak FY2016
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WTW, Willis Towers Watson PLC
Insurance Brokers financial
Our clients operate on a global and local scale in a multitude of businesses and industries throughout the world and generally range in size from large, major multinational corporations to middle-market domestic and international companies.
Utilizing the global view and local expertise of our approximately 47,000 colleagues serving more than 140 countries and markets, we help organizations sharpen strategies, enhance resilience, motivate workforces and maximize performance.
We operate a private Medicare marketplace in the U.S. through which, along with our active employee marketplace, we help our clients move to a more sustainable economic model by capping and controlling the costs associated with healthcare benefits.
The business
What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.
Revenue · FY2025
$9.5B
−2.3% YoY · 2% 5-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average
Revenue $9.7B 5-yr avg $9.2B
Net margin 17.2% 5-yr avg 17.3%
Revenue $2.4B +8.5% vs yr-ago qtr
Operating margin 18.6% yr-ago 19.4%
Net income $303M yr-ago $239M
Net margin 12.6% yr-ago 10.8%
The business in brief
read the 10-K →What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.
- What it is
- Revenue is HWC (56%) and R&B (44%).
- What moves the needle
- Commissions on the premiums it places, and organic growth. What decides it: insurance prices in the market, since it earns a slice of them; new business won and kept; and a capital-light fee stream that carries none of the underwriting risk of the insurers it sells for. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on customer concentration, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
- Is it a good business?
- Operating margin has been modest for a fee business (median 11%). It earns this on little capital, so return on equity has run near 10%, the leverage of a model that needs almost no plant to grow. A high return that does not fade can mark a moat, but whether the commissions keep renewing as rates turn is what the 10-K settles, not the multiple.
Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.
Where the money comes from
read the 10-K →Revenue spreads across 3 segments, the largest HWC at 56%.
Revenue by reportable segment, FY2025
- HWC56%$5.3B
- R&B44%$4.2B
- Corporate0%$3M
By geographyUnited States47%Rest of World31%United Kingdom22%Ireland2%
From the segment footnote of the company's own 10-K. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.
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 | |||||||||||
| $7.9B | $8.2B | $8.4B | $8.3B | $8.6B | $8.8B | $8.7B | $9.3B | $9.7B | $9.5B | $9.7B | RevenueRevenue |
| 4.4% | 6.3% | 9.6% | 12.7% | 10.0% | 24.9% | 13.5% | 14.7% | 6.4% | 23.5% | 23.2% | Operating marginOp. mgn |
| 5.3% | 6.9% | 8.3% | 12.6% | 11.6% | 47.8% | 11.6% | 11.3% | −1.0% | 16.9% | 17.2% | Net marginNet mgn |
| $420M | $568M | $695M | $1.0B | $996M | $4.2B | $1.0B | $1.1B | ($98M) | $1.6B | $1.7B | Net incomeNet inc. |
| — | — | 16% | 16% | 20% | 11% | 16% | 17% | — | 17% | 16% | Effective tax rateTax rate |
| Cash flow & returns | |||||||||||
| $715M | $562M | $1.1B | — | — | — | — | $1.1B | $1.3B | $1.5B | $1.6B | Owner earningsOwner earn. |
| 4% | 6% | 7% | 10% | 9% | 32% | 10% | 11% | -1% | 20% | 21% | Return on equityROE |
| 2% | 3% | 4% | 7% | 6% | 29% | 6% | 7% | −6% | 16% | 16% | Retained to equityRetained/eq |
| Balance sheet | |||||||||||
| $30.3B | $32.5B | $32.4B | $35.4B | $38.5B | $35.0B | $31.8B | $29.1B | $27.7B | $29.5B | $29.6B | Total assetsAssets |
| $870M | $1.0B | $1.0B | $887M | $2.0B | $4.7B | $1.3B | $1.4B | $1.9B | $3.2B | $1.9B | Cash & investmentsCash+inv |
| $10.1B | $10.1B | $9.9B | $10.2B | $10.8B | $13.3B | $10.0B | $9.5B | $7.9B | $8.0B | $8.0B | Shareholders’ equityEquity |
| Per share | |||||||||||
| 138M | 136M | 132M | 130M | 130M | 129M | 112M | 106M | 102M | 99.0M | 96.0M | Shares out (diluted)Shares |
| $57.15 | $60.31 | $63.73 | $63.74 | $65.80 | $68.42 | $77.91 | $87.77 | $95.48 | $96.12 | $101.03 | Revenue / shareRev/sh |
| $3.04 | $4.18 | $5.27 | $8.03 | $7.66 | $32.73 | $9.01 | $9.95 | $-0.96 | $16.21 | $17.36 | EPS (diluted)EPS |
| $5.18 | $4.13 | $8.14 | — | — | — | — | $10.41 | $12.42 | $15.62 | $16.32 | Owner earnings / shareOE/sh |
| $1.44 | $2.04 | $2.32 | $2.53 | $2.66 | $2.90 | $3.29 | $3.32 | $3.47 | $3.62 | $3.73 | Dividends / shareDiv/sh |
| $72.93 | $74.46 | $74.64 | $78.84 | $83.23 | $102.79 | $89.43 | $89.81 | $77.84 | $80.57 | $83.09 | Book value / shareBVPS |
Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded
| 9-yr | 5-yr | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue / share | +5.9%/yr | +7.9%/yr |
| Owner earnings / share | +13.0%/yr | +22.5%/yr (2-yr) |
| EPS | +20.4%/yr | +16.2%/yr |
| Dividends / share | +10.8%/yr | +6.3%/yr |
| Capital spending / share | +4.3%/yr | +0.7%/yr (2-yr) |
| Book value / share | +1.1%/yr | −0.6%/yr |
The year, in the company's words
the filing →Verbatim from the 10-K's management discussion. Each sentence is shown only because its subject, direction, and stated figures check out against the filed numbers on this page. The words are the company's; the arithmetic is the record's.
- Net income+1737.8%
“Net Income/(Loss) Attributable to WTW Net income attributable to WTW for the year ended December 31, 2025 was $1.6 billion, compared to a net loss of $98 million for the year ended December 31, 2024, an increase of $1.7 billion.”
✓ figure matches the filed record
The record, charted
FY2016–2025Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.
Revenue
$9.5Blow 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?
- Operating margin 23.5%Solid fee marginOperating income $2.2B ÷ revenue $9.5BIndustry peers: median 16%
What this means
The heart of a insurance broker: how much of each fee dollar survives the cost of running the business. Commissions are a slice of the premiums it places, earned without taking the underwriting risk itself, so it is a capital-light fee stream that rises with new business, retention and the price of insurance. A high margin held for years, through a market it does not control, is the operational mark of a real franchise.
- Net margin 16.9%WideNet income $1.6B ÷ revenue $9.5B
What this means
What reaches the owner after tax and interest. For a capital-light fee business this should be a wide share of revenue; when it is thin despite a high operating margin, debt taken on for acquisitions is usually the reason, so read it next to the balance sheet.
- Return on equity 20%StrongNet income $1.6B ÷ equity $8.0BIndustry peers: median 13%
What this means
Because the business ties up little capital, a healthy fee stream throws off a high return on the equity behind it. Read it with the buyback record: returning capital lifts this ratio honestly, but heavy debt taken to do so can flatter it.
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.
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.
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.
Current Position
as of the latest quarter, Mar 31, 2026Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.
Current assets$16.1B
- Cash & short-term investments$1.9B
- Receivables$2.6B
- Other current assets$11.6B
Current liabilities$13.5B
- Accounts payable$145M
- Other current liabilities$13.4B
Current ratio1.19×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio1.19×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio0.14×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capital$2.5Bthe cushion left after near-term bills
Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+8.5%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing
Current ratio, recent quarters1.1× → 1.2×
Deeper floors
Tangible book value($3.0B)equity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Net current asset value($5.5B)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities
Debt incl. operating leases$6.9B$602M of it operating leases
From the company's latest filing.
Debt maturity
the debt note, SEC EDGAR →Not how much it owes, but when it falls due, and against what. The ladder the company files, beside cash on hand and a year's owner earnings.
Bars scaled to the largest single year; “later” is everything due after 2030, shown apart since it dwarfs the years.
Due in the next 12 months$550Mthe first rung: what must be repaid or rolled over within the year
Within two years$1.3Bthe near wall, the part most exposed to today’s credit conditions
Biggest single year$750Min 2027the lumpiest maturity, where a refinancing, if needed, is largest
Total scheduled principal$6.3Bevery year plus what lies beyond, as the footnote totals it
Against what the business has and earns
Cash & short-term investments, Mar 31, 2026$1.9B
One year of owner earnings (FY2025)$1.5B
Together, against $550M due next year6.2×
Cash on hand as of Mar 31, 2026 plus a year’s owner earnings comes to $3.4B against the $550M due in the twelve months after the Dec 31, 2025 schedule: 6.2 times it.
Maturity schedule extracted from the company’s Dec 31, 2025 annual report and reconciled to the total the table states.
Acquisitions & goodwill
from the balance sheet & the 10-year cash-flow recordGoodwill grows only when a company acquires and falls only when it concedes it overpaid. The size of that bet, the cash put into buying rather than building, and how much has already been written off.
Goodwill & intangibles$10.1B34% of all assets; the premium carried on the balance sheet for businesses acquired
Against book equityexceeds itgoodwill alone is larger than the company’s entire book equity; stripped of the acquisition premium, there is no net book worth
Cash spent acquiring$2.2Bover 10 years buying other businesses, against $1.5B of capital spent building
$1.0B written down across 1 year (2024): goodwill the company has already conceded it overpaid for, charged against earnings. That is roughly 48% of the cash it put into acquisitions over the span. A write-down costs no cash (the cash went out when the deal was signed), but it is management marking its own past judgment to market.
Goodwill, acquired intangibles and equity from the latest balance sheet; acquisition spend and write-downs summed across the 10-year record, from the company's own filings.
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 | Pay, as filed | “Actually paid” | Owner earnings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | $20.3M | $14.6M | — |
| 2022 | $10.7M | $11.4M | — |
| 2023 | $12.7M | $17.3M | $1.1B |
| 2024 | $12.5M | $22.0M | $1.3B |
| 2025 | $12.8M | $21.7M | $1.5B |
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.
- Stock-based compensation$153M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 2% of revenue, equal to 7% of operating profit. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. One trap: the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.
What an owner would ask, FY2025
read the 10-K →- Which reported numbers are a judgment call?Management names Revenue recognition, Pension & retirement, Income taxes, Acquisitions 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 Brokers
The same industry, side by side on fee margins. 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 | Op. margin | Net margin | ROE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMCMarsh & Mclennan Companies, Inc. | $27.0B | 19.8% | 14.1% | 28% |
| AONAon PLC | $17.2B | 22.1% | 15.9% | 41% |
| AJGArthur J. Gallagher & Co. | $13.9B | 11.8% | 10.2% | 11% |
| EQHEquitable Holdings Inc. | $11.7B | 11.4% | 10.5% | 13% |
| WTWWillis Towers Watson PLC | $9.5B | 11.4% | 11.5% | 10% |
| BROBrown & Brown Inc. | $5.9B | 26.7% | 18.6% | 13% |
| ERIEErie Indemnity Company | $4.1B | 15.2% | 12.4% | 25% |
| RYANRyan Specialty Holdings Inc. | $3.0B | 16.5% | 3.9% | 11% |
| Group median | — | 15.8% | 11.9% | 13% |
The price
What a price has to assume.
What the price implies
reverse-DCFType today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what Willis Towers Watson PLC has delivered.
Willis Towers Watson PLC’s latest year runs above its own through-cycle margin — the reported figure may flatter a peak. So the tool opens on the through-cycle base, Graham’s averaging cutting both ways; clear the toggle below to read the latest year exactly as reported.
$
Through the cycle, Willis Towers Watson PLC earns about $1.2B on its 12.3% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 16.2% margin runs above that; the reported figure may flatter a peak you'd be paying on. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year. It comes pre-checked here for that reason, the same rule that already normalizes a trough; clear it to price the year as filed.
Base
—
The assumptions
9.0% = the 4.55% 10-year Treasury (Jul 15, 2026) + 4.45 points of equity premium. The rate you require is yours to set.
Enter a price above to run it.
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.
Implied by the price—
Owner-earnings growth · ’17→’25+7%/yr
Owner-earnings growth · ’16→’25+9%/yr
Owner-earnings growth · ’16→’25+9%/yr
Owner-earnings yield—
What a growth belief costs, in multiples
The growth each return requires, at your price
P/E (3-yr earnings ’23–’25)—
P/B—
Graham’s price gate—
Graham capped the multiple at 15×; Buffett and Munger let that rule go: a wonderful business can deserve 50× if the thesis holds. The gate marks the bargain-hunter's floor.
Against a high-grade bond: Graham’s yardstick bond yield%
Prefilled with the 10-year Treasury (4.55%, as of Jul 15, 2026). Edit it for today’s exact figure, or a AAA corporate yield.
Graham measured a stock against the bond you could own instead, the heart of his margin of safety. Enter a price above to weigh the owner-earnings yield against this bond.
Owner-earnings yield—
High-grade bond yield—
Margin over the bond—
Owner earnings $1.6B on 94M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-04-27; net debt $4.4B. The base opens on the through-cycle figure (the latest year sits above the record’s own median, and Graham’s averaging cuts both ways); clear Normalize to use the year as filed. Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.
Cite: Owner Scorecard, "Willis Towers Watson PLC (WTW), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/WTW, data as of 2026-07-09.
Manual order: ← WTTR its page in the Manual WU →
Industry order: ← WDH the Insurance Brokers chapter XHG →