This insurance company beat analysts’ estimates by $.10 last quarter.
W. R. Berkley Corporation (WRB)
From 2 for 1 Stock Split Newsletter
W. R. Berkley Corporation (WRB) announced a 1 for 2 split on 2/21. WRB is a medium size company by market cap ($l0B) but, in the insurance world, it’s pretty small potatoes, writing just 1% of the insurance in the USA per year.
William R. Berkley, 71 years old, founded the company in 1967 and, according to Forbes, still owns 20% of it. He turned over the CEO job to his son in 2015 but remains Chairman of the Board.
Berkley primarily writes various specialty lines of commercial insurance so it’s not likely the average home or auto buyer has ever heard of the company. However, this is a profitable, steadily growing business that definitely fits into the 2 for 1 portfolio.
I ran the numbers through the same screens I use every month just to get a better feel for this company relative to the rest of the portfolio. WRB’s score was not overly impressive, but certainly respectable. Volatility is less than the market average and valuation numbers are a bit better than average for this industry and sector. I like the five-year average growth for earnings and return on equity, both coming in around a healthy 12%/year.
Over the last two and a half years, WRB has also paid out four different special dividends of $0.50 each. If this trend continues, we will have a much better yield of over 1.5%.
Neil Macneale, 2 for 1 Stock Split Newsletter, www.2-for-1.com, 408-210-6881, March 2019