Berkley W R
Through the investors’ lenses
Each of these investors has said in public what they look at before buying. Click a name to see how this company measures up — a tick where it passes one of their tests, a cross where it does not.
Warren Buffett 1/1
| Measure | WRB | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner earnings | — | positive | — |
| Return on equity | 18.3% | median 11.7% | ✓ |
| Debt to equity | — | median 0.79x | — |
| Operating margin | — | median 15.0% | — |
Passes 1 of 1. To be clear: Warren Buffett has never said anything about Berkley W R. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Charlie Munger 1/1
| Measure | WRB | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Return on capital employed | — | median 10.1% | — |
| Return on equity | 18.3% | median 11.7% | ✓ |
| Operating margin | — | median 15.0% | — |
Passes 1 of 1. To be clear: Charlie Munger has never said anything about Berkley W R. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Chuck Akre 1/2
| Measure | WRB | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Return on equity | 18.3% | median 11.7% | ✓ |
| Debt to equity | — | median 0.79x | — |
| Cash conversion | — | median 1.78x | — |
| Return on equity, sustained | 7 of 10 | 8 of 10 above median | ✗ |
Passes 1 of 2. To be clear: Chuck Akre has never said anything about Berkley W R. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Benjamin Graham 1/1
| Measure | WRB | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current ratio | — | 2.00x published | — |
| Long-term debt to working capital | — | 1.00x published | — |
| Positive earnings, ten years running | 10 yrs | 10 published | ✓ |
Passes 1 of 1. To be clear: Benjamin Graham has never said anything about Berkley W R. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
| Basis | Payout | Why |
|---|---|---|
| GAAP earnings | 41.6% | whyThe figure most screeners publish. |
Only one basis is shown, and that is the point. Operating and free cash flow swing with loan, deposit and reserve movements, so for a lender or insurer neither says anything about whether the dividend is affordable. Investment income is omitted for a second reason: insurers file it under the same tag a BDC uses, but it means investment income on float rather than the money that funds the distribution. Screeners that publish these for a bank are printing arithmetic, not information — and a wide gap between them is noise, not a finding.
Coverage rating 35 / 100 — Strained. ? Peer standing 17/50Direction 10/30Stability 8/20
GAAP earnings payout, last 6 years
| Fiscal year | Payout |
|---|---|
| 2025-12-31 | 41.6% |
| 2024-12-31 | 32.1% |
| 2023-12-31 | 38.3% |
| 2022-12-31 | 17.9% |
| 2021-12-31 | 36.6% |
| 2020-12-31 | 16.6% |
Coverage worsened sharply this year, 32.1% to 41.6%, after no clear trend before it. One year is not a trend, but it is worth knowing which direction the last one moved.
Among the 48 banks & insurers companies here, 33% pay out a larger share on this basis.
The arithmetic
- GAAP earnings — dividends declared per share $1.85 ÷ diluted EPS $4.45
Where the figures came from
- 10-K filed 2026-02-27 · accession 0000011544-26-000005
All public at sec.gov — you should not have to take our word for it.
Computed straight from SEC XBRL. A number that looks wrong to you is more useful to us than agreement — tell us.
What the GAAP earnings payout ratio measures, and where every company here sits on it.
Also on: rated strained · when it files.
When this changes
Every figure above is recomputed whenever Berkley W R files. The monthly letter carries what filed, what moved, and one finding computed across every company here.