No. of Recommendations: 5
As has been the case recently, Markel is down after earnings. There always seems to be an unpleasant surprise.
The main culprit this time is the extra reserve of $205 million for State National which affected operating earnings. State National is a fronting program and one of its coverage providers went bankrupt and the collateral it provided was inadequate.
Markel repurchased approximately 1% of its outstanding shares during the second quarter and has spent more than $2 billion on buybacks since the beginning of 2022. Management said the repurchases were funded through earnings rather than additional borrowing.
For what it is worth, stock is now below 1.25 PB, and I expect management is continuing repurchases.
coverager.com - Markel records a million loss at state national 