Berkshire Hathaway Inc. ’s (BRK.B) shares are trading premium to the Zacks Property and Casualty Insurance industry. Its price-to-book value of 1.61X is higher than the industry average of 1.59. It has a Value Score of D, indicating stretched valuation.
This insurance behemoth has a market capitalization of more than $1 trillion. The average volume of shares traded in the last three months was 3.9 million.
The stock however remains attractively valued compared with other insurers like The Progressive Corporation PGR and The Allstate Corporation ALL.
Berkshire shares have gained 4.4% quarter to date, underperforming its industry and the Zacks S&P 500 composite’s returns.
BRK.B Vs Industry, Sector & S&P 500 QTD
Factors Favoring Berkshire
The insurance business primarily contributes to Berkshire’s top line. About 40% of the company’s operating earnings came from its insurance underwriting and insurance investment subsidiaries in 2023. Other operations — including utilities and energy, and manufacturing, service and retail — accounted for the remaining 60%.
Thus, occurrences of catastrophe activities weigh on profitability. The insurer incurred $465 million in catastrophe events in the first nine months of 2024. Berkshire estimates pre-tax incurred losses between $1.3 billion and $1.5 billion from Hurricane Milton that struck Florida in October 2024.
Insurers invest a portion of their premiums and, thus, are direct beneficiaries of an improved rate environment. With two consecutive rate cuts, investment income is likely to be dampened.
U.S. GDP grew 2.8% in the third quarter of 2024, which slowed from 3% in the second quarter. The performances of Berkshire’s utilities and energy, and manufacturing, service and retail units are dependent on the health of the economy. With inflation cooling and a decent job market, we expect these units to continue to deliver better results.
With a huge cash hoard, Berkshire acquires entities or adds stakes of companies that have consistent earning power and generate impressive returns on equity. While prudent acquisitions open up more business opportunities for the company, bolt-on acquisitions enhance earnings of the existing business.
In its efforts to distribute wealth to shareholders, Berkshire bought back shares worth $2.9 billion in the first nine months of 2024.
Berkshire’s Return on Capital
Return on equity in the trailing 12 months was 6.9%, underperforming the industry average of 7.6%. Return on equity, a profitability measure, here reflects BRK.B’s inefficiency in utilizing its shareholders' fund.
The company’s return on invested capital in the trailing 12 months was 5.5%, lower than the industry average of 5.8%. This reflects BRK.B’s inefficiency in utilizing funds to generate income.
Optimistic Analyst Sentiment
One of the three analysts covering the stock has raised estimates for 2024 and 2025 over the past 30 days. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2024 implies a 14.6% year-over-year increase, whereas the same for 2025 suggests a 1.4% rise.
The consensus estimate for 2024 and 2025 has moved 0.4% and 0.2% north, respectively, in the past 30 days.
Conclusion
Holding shares of Berkshire renders dynamism to one’s portfolio. Also, it has Warren Buffett at its helm, who has been creating tremendous value for shareholders over nearly six decades with his unique skills.
However, Berkshire shares have been trading at a premium for quite some time. Due to its price underperformance and unfavorable return on capital, it is better to shy away from the Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) stock as of now.
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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