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Fourth quarter highlights included:

Return on equity and operating return on equity of 30.9% and 24.3%, respectively.
Net income increased 45.0% to $576 million and operating income increased 15.5% to a record $453 million.
The current accident year combined ratio before catastrophe losses of 2.6 loss ratio points was 87.7%, and the reported combined ratio was 90.2%.
Average rate increases excluding workers' compensation were approximately 7.7%.
Operating cash flow increased 16.0% to $810.0 million.

The Company once again set new financial records in 2024. Full year results were highlighted by record net income, with outstanding underwriting performance and net investment income, culminating in a 23.6% return on beginning of year equity. Growth in book value per share was 23.5%, before $836 million of capital returned to shareholders through special and ordinary dividends and share repurchases.

https://seekingalpha.com/pr/19982031-w-r-berkley-c...

Hoping Berkshire’s insurance segment matches Berkley’s.

And related...as Buffett himself is quoted in John Train's books: "The insurance broker business is better one than underwriting. It is a toll booth on the world's economy."

I've been writing about the brokers on our Berk forums now for about 30 years. While the discussions don't gain traction the businesses and stocks are do well. I have 125 times my original investment in Brown (BRO).

https://www.bbinsurance.com/news/brown-organic-rev...

Are you the one who jumped up and down in late 2023 about AJG and BRO?

Because whoever did that deserves a case of their favorite adult beverage. That little comment had me look into them and make a LOT of money.

TMF and now SHREWDM have been such valuable places since I first discovered TMF in the 1990's.

Are you the one who jumped up and down in late 2023 about AJG and BRO?

Because whoever did that deserves a case of their favorite adult beverage. That little comment had me look into them and make a LOT of money.

TMF and now SHREWDM have been such valuable places since I first discovered TMF in the 1990's.

dealraker has been jumping up and down on AJG and BRO since at least the 90's

Congratulations on your great investment in insurance brokers. I have read many of your posts on your long ago investments.

Whenever I have looked at them they seem to be very highly valued. So maybe they are no longer as good an investment as when you bought them.

Can you comment on their current valuation and do you think they are still great investments?

I meant to post the current valuation of AJG .

Its trailng PE is 56 and forward PE is 30. Trailing 5-yr Revenue growth of 8%, 5-yr EPs growth of 5% and ROE is 10.4%.

Even with long track record of consistency, are current valuations justified?

From 1993-02-01

                                  AJG         BRO
Annualized Return                0.158        0.186
Annualized Std Dev               0.250        0.275
Annualized Sharpe (Rf=0%)        0.633        0.675
maxDrawdown                      0.491        0.541

                                  SPY
Annualized Return                0.105
Annualized Std Dev               0.186
Annualized Sharpe (Rf=0%)        0.566
maxDrawdown                      0.552  

Deal-
As it relates to AJG and BRO, do you feel these are buys now, or if not, is there a valuation metric you would focus on for entry (i don’t own these) or simply just wait for a drawdown.

I have always recognized BRO and it’s on my screen and for some reason I haven’t bitten.

Thank you

Berkfan, lord help relying on me for the when of it all. I made an investment in BRO in 1994 then basically paraded my "expertise" (I'm NOT serious here) around claiming wha.t a fantastic business - and as times price - it was...while not once buying more. Then over on the COBF forums we started an insurance broker forum a couple of years ago and a guy using Spekulatius (I know him, we eat lunches together) brought it up to buy more recently in the $60-ish range. And so there I go and buy more.

Obviously I needed prodding to do what I preach. That said, I do not think the brokers are what we call good buys currently. I do read Wells Fargo's insurance broker research and it has proven time and time again to be quite good for years. They have positive views of the brokers including BRO and AJG today. But they are modeling them with good EPS growth and low to mid 20's PE ratios based on free cash flow.

Uggh, I'm just a poor source for the when of it all.

Deal,
Thank you for the response, and so true, ‘WHEN’- is hard

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