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Markel is off to a very good start in 2019

May 3rd, 2019

Markel (NYSE:MKL) the speciality insurer released very good results for Q1 2019.

This is encouraging after the hefty swings of the share price from an all time high of $ 1’217.82 in August 2018 down to $ 957 in January 2019 and now up again to $ 1061,05

Since the beginning of 2018 incertainty came from the ongoing governmental inquiries into the loss reserves of the „CatCo business“ which today seem to be behind them.

Book value/share rose from $ 671.05 in the prior year quarter to $ 706.98 , an increase of 5.4% and the combined ratio was 95% compared to 90% in the 1st quarter 2018.

Operating revenue growth of 56.9% yoy from $1.575 billion to $ 2.472 billion is certainly an impressing number but can largely be explained by accounting rules:

Markel every quarter has to adjust the fair value of their equity securities to market prices. As the equity market recovered in Q1 2019 $611.5 million increase in operating revenue can be explained by this increase.

At Markel’s investment operations net investment income increased 5.7% year over year, to $114.2 million.

At Markel Ventures operating revenue grew 16.1% to $455 billion and operating income grew 25.8% to $29.9 million

Markel is cautiously optimistic about the remainder of this year!

At a price/book value per share ratio of 1.5 Markel’stock remains a buy!

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