Hi, Shrewd!        Login  
Shrewd'm.com 
A merry & shrewd investing community
Best Of BRK.ABest OfAll BoardsThe Shrewd’m WeeklyLearn to InvestHow to Become Shrewd
Search
Shrewd'm.com Merry shrewd investors
Search
Best Of BRK.ABest OfAll BoardsThe Shrewd’m WeeklyLearn to InvestHow to Become Shrewd


The week's question
In December 2024, in the thread "Re: BRK: Why Not XOM?", BreckHutHigh asked the members: "What about the long road trips with kids?" This week it is put to everyone again. The button below opens the small thread re-asking it - read what others have said so far, then give your own answer as an ordinary reply.
Answer this questionContinue to Shrewd'mThis note won't appear again
Stocks A to Z / Stocks B / Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)
Unthreaded | Threaded | Whole Thread (16) |
Author: mungofitch 🐝🐝🐝 GOLD
SHREWD
  😊 😞

Number: of 21939 
Subject: Re: Articles on the quarterly results
Date: 11/06/23 3:28 PM
Post New | Post Reply | Report Post | Recommend It!
No. of Recommendations: 11
Your 'cyclical adjustment on the underwriting profit', I presume, is just replacing it with something like the 20-year average underwriting profit (itself adjusted for the effects of growth and inflation)? Or just substituting U/W with a percentage of float, you used to use 0.8%, which in my opinion is very conservative.

More like the latter.
I estimate it two ways and average the two months. One is average return on float (1.3%), and the other is average percentage of premiums earned (2.7%, after excluding big retrocession events).

At the moment my formula estimates the current four-quarter rate as $2.255bn/year pretax. The true figure for the last four quarters is $5.517bn--it has been a good year, so my smoothing lowers it.
Conversely the true figure for the four quarters ending 2022-Q2 was -$545m, a bad year, which my cyclical adjustment bumped up to $1.936bn.

The estimated underwriting profit is up almost exactly 50% in the last five years. Maybe Berkshire has stepped away from supercat a bit, but the insurance operation as a whole is still growing strongly.

Jim
Post New | Post Reply | Report Post | Recommend It!
Print the post
Members reply directly to mungofitch here — and replies get answered. Reading is free; so is joining the conversation. Join Shrewd'm »
This community has written 21,448 posts about Berkshire Hathaway. The article-length ones it recommended most:
BRK: Why Not XOM? · 62 recs · 2024
Second quarter comments · 60 recs · 2023
Berkshire's Profit Contributors · 57 recs · 2023
Summary of 2Q 2026 · 54 recs · 2026
3Q Summary · 53 recs · 2024
Unthreaded | Threaded | Whole Thread (16) |


Announcements
Berkshire Hathaway FAQ
Contact Shrewd'm
Contact the developer of these message boards.

Best Of BRK.A | Best Of | Favourites & Replies | All Boards | Followed Shrewds | Open Questions | Moving a community