" This Mini Berkshire Hathaway Is a Buy. An Activist Investor Is Pushing to Break It Up."

Key Points

About This Summary

Markel Group’s stock trades at 1.2 times its March 31 book value of $1,450 per share, below its recent average of 1.4 times.

Activist investor Jana Partners urged Markel to sell noninsurance units and buy back $2 billion of stock, or nearly 10% of market value.

Markel’s underwriting profit margin rose three percentage points in the first quarter, resulting in a combined ratio of 93%.

Markel Group
MKL

+0.82%

is the best known of the so-called mini Berkshire Hathaway
BRK.B

+0.18%

s that combine insurance, stock investments, and wholly owned businesses.

Like Berkshire, Markel has attracted a dedicated shareholder base in the 40 years since it went public. The stock is up 225-fold to $1,800 from $8 at its 1986 initial public offering—but still behind the 300-fold gain in Berkshire over that span."
How Markel Stacks Up
Insurers have been lagging badly behind the S&P 500.

Table with 6 columns and 4 rows. (column headers with buttons are sortable)
Company / Ticker Recent Price 52-Week Change Market Value (billion) 2026E P/E Price/Book Ratio
Markel Group / MKL $1,799.97 -4.1% $23 13.2 1.2
Berkshire Hathaway / BRK.B 475.08 -8.3 1,027 23.2 1.4
Fairfax Financial Holdings / FRFHF 1,627.97 1.0 37 8.2 1.3
S&P 500 Index 7337.11 30.3 N/A 21.6 N/A