{"id":2064,"date":"2019-02-09T14:13:40","date_gmt":"2019-02-09T12:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blog.asmus-puhl.com\/?p=2064"},"modified":"2019-02-09T14:13:40","modified_gmt":"2019-02-09T12:13:40","slug":"markel-reported-a-difficult-q4-and-fy-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.blog.asmus-puhl.com\/?p=2064","title":{"rendered":"Markel reported a difficult Q4 and FY 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Markel Corporation (NYSE: MKL) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markelcorp.com\/About-Markel\/NewsRoom\/Reuters2386229\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"reported Q4 and FY 2018 results. (opens in a new tab)\">reported Q4 and FY 2018 results.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Operating revenues came in at $6.8 billion for the year ended December 31, 2018 compared to $6.1 billion in 2017.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Comprehensive\nloss to shareholders was $375.8 million\nfor\nthe year ended December 31, 2018 compared to comprehensive income to\nshareholders of $1.2 billion\nin\n2017. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Diluted\nnet loss per share was $9.55\nfor\nthe year ended December 31, 2018 compared to diluted net income per\nshare of $25.81 in\n2017<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\ncombined ratio was 98% in 2018 compared to 105% in 2017. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Book\nvalue per common share outstanding the single most important ratio in\nthe insurance industry declined 4% to $653.85 at December 31, 2018,\ndown from $683.55 at December 31, 2017. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This\nwas certainly a difficult quarter and fiscal year for Markel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One\nproblem was the steep decline of the stock market at the end of 2018.\nTherefore Markel had to recognize a comprohensive loss. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In\naddition the results were also impacted by a goodwill and intangible\nasset impairment of Markel CatCo operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\ninvestment results weren&#8217;t so bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\nNet\ninvestment income surged 12.8% year over year to $114.5 million,\ndriven by higher short-term interest rates, dividend income from\nequities, and higher interest income on the fixed-maturity\ninvestments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\nThe\ninvestment portfolio of Markel will always be more volatile than the\none of other insurers as they maintain a rather high equity portion\nof 30% of total invested assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\nIn\nMarkel Ventures total revenue climbed 18% year over year, to\n$472 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\nDespite\nthe above mentioned setbacks Markel looks optimisticly into the\nfuture:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nunderwriting\nresults for the year 2018 were positive, despite significant\ncatastrophe losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In\nQ4 they completed\nthe acquisition of Nephila of Bermuda, the industry&#8217;s preeminent\ninsurance-linked securities investment manager.\nSo Markel remains committed to there strategy in this market segment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For\ninvestors the big picture and the long term perspective hasn&#8217;t\nchanged at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Markel&#8217;s\nstock is valued at a price\/book value per share ratio of only 1,6<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At\nthis price Markel remains a buy!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Markel Corporation (NYSE: MKL) reported Q4 and FY 2018 results. Operating revenues came in at $6.8 billion for the year ended December 31, 2018 compared to $6.1 billion in 2017. Comprehensive loss to shareholders was $375.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2018 compared to comprehensive income to shareholders of $1.2 billion in 2017. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.blog.asmus-puhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.blog.asmus-puhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.blog.asmus-puhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.blog.asmus-puhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.blog.asmus-puhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2064"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.blog.asmus-puhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2066,"href":"http:\/\/www.blog.asmus-puhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064\/revisions\/2066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.blog.asmus-puhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.blog.asmus-puhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.blog.asmus-puhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}