No. of Recommendations: 3
The stock is worth buying now, closing at $1,800 a share on Thursday.
Markel trades for about 1.2 times its March 31 book value of $1,450 per share—below its average of close to 1.4 times in the past few years—and for 13 times projected 2026 operating earnings.
The stock also trades way below Markel’s own estimate of its intrinsic value of about $2,900 a share. If the stock rises slightly, Markel’s market cap would be sufficient for the company’s potential inclusion in the S&P 500 index.
Markel has attracted an activist investor, Jana Partners, which took a Markel holding in late 2024 that is now under 1%. It sent a letter to the Markel board in late April after the company’s first-quarter earnings missed expectations and urged the company to sell the noninsurance units and buy back $2 billion of stock, or just under 10% of the current market value of $22.5 billion.
Gayner tells_ Barron’s_ that the board will evaluate the Jana letter, but he didn’t sound enthusiastic about it. “Our diversified and resilient business model and long-term orientation have served our shareholders well for a long period of time and will continue to do so.”
Investor and Berkshire board member Chris Davis, whose firm, Davis Advisors, has been a Markel investor since its IPO, doesn’t like the Jana breakup idea. He told CNBC that it’s “one of the stupidest suggestions in the past 20 years.”
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