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If You Invested $1000 in W.R. Berkley a Decade Ago, This is How Much It'd Be Worth Now

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How much a stock's price changes over time is a significant driver for most investors. Not only can price performance impact your portfolio, but it can help you compare investment results across sectors and industries as well.

Another thing that can drive investing is the fear of missing out, or FOMO. This particularly applies to tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.

What if you'd invested in W.R. Berkley (WRB - Free Report) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to WRB for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?

W.R. Berkley's Business In-Depth

With that in mind, let's take a look at W.R. Berkley's main business drivers.

Founded in 1967 and based in Greenwich, CT., W.R. Berkley Corp. is a Fortune 500 company. It is one of the nation’s largest commercial lines property casualty insurance providers. The company offers a variety of insurance services from reinsurance, to workers comp third party administrators (TPAs). 

Effective since first quarter of 2016, the company reports results in two segments – Insurance and Reinsurance. Insurance-Domestic operating units and Insurance-International operating units that were previously reported separately have been combined with the Insurance segment.

The two reporting segments are composed of individual operating units that serve a market defined by geography, products, services or industry served.

Insurance segment (87.4% of 2021 net premiums written) predominantly underwrites commercial insurance business primarily throughout the United States, although many units offer coverage globally. It mainly includes commercial insurance business, including excess and surplus lines, Industry Specialty, Product Specialty and Regional. The coverages are offered in the United States, United Kingdom, Continental Europe, South America, Canada, Scandinavia, Asia and Australia.

In addition to providing insurance products, certain operating units also provide a wide variety of fee-based services, including claims, administrative and consulting services.

Reinsurance segment (12.6%) is operated primarily on a facultative and treaty basis. It provides other insurance companies and self-insureds with assistance in managing their net risk through reinsurance on either a portfolio basis, through treaty reinsurance, or on an individual basis, through facultative reinsurance. The services are offered in the United States, United Kingdom, Continental Europe, Australia, the Asia-Pacific Region, and South Africa.

On Feb 22, 2022, the board of directors of W.R. Berkley approved a 3-for-2 stock split which was paid in the form of dividend to shareholders.

Bottom Line

While anyone can invest, building a lucrative investment portfolio takes research, patience, and a little bit of risk. If you had invested in W.R. Berkley ten years ago, you're probably feeling pretty good about your investment today.

According to our calculations, a $1000 investment made in December 2012 would be worth $4,161.58, or a gain of 316.16%, as of December 12, 2022, and this return excludes dividends but includes price increases.

Compare this to the S&P 500's rally of 177.45% and gold's return of 0.78% over the same time frame.

Going forward, analysts are expecting more upside for WRB.

W.R. Berkley has been consistently benefiting from its insurance business, performing well on an increase in premium written over the past many years. Shares of W.R. Berkley have outperformed the industry in the past year. The company has been investing in numerous startups since 2006 and establishing new units in growing international markets. Its international business is poised for growth supported by the emerging markets. Solid capital position enables capital deployment. Investment in alternative assets should help improve investment income. However, exposure to a highly competitive reinsurance market is a concern. Rising debt induces higher interest expenses and is an overhang on times interest earned. Also, higher expenses weigh on margin expansion. Exposure to catastrophe loss has been inducing volatility in earnings.

The stock has jumped 5.43% over the past four weeks. Additionally, no earnings estimate has gone lower in the past two months, compared to 3 higher, for fiscal 2022; the consensus estimate has moved up as well.

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