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W. R. Berkley (WRB) FY2025 results: revenue $14.7 billion, up 7.8% on the year

W. R. Berkley Corp. (WRB) reported revenue of $14.7 billion for fiscal 2025, the year ended 31 December 2025, up 7.8% on the year before. Net income was $1.8 billion, up 1.3%, and diluted earnings per share $4.45. The figures are the company's own, from the 10-K it filed with the SEC on 27 February 2026.

Revenue
$14.7 billion
+7.8% on the year
FY2018FY2025
Operating margin
n/a
FY2018FY2025
Net income
$1.8 billion
+1.3% on the year
FY2018FY2025
Diluted EPS
$4.45
+2.1% on the year
FY2018FY2025

this yearthe year beforeHover a bar for its figure.

The year in brief

What management said about the year

  • Record quarterly underwriting income: Pre-tax underwriting income grew 14.9% to $338 million in the fourth quarter, a record. Full-year pre-tax underwriting income reached $1.2 billion.
  • Return on equity 21.4% in quarter: Return on equity was 21.4% for the quarter against 30.9% a year earlier, and 21.2% for the full year against 23.6%.
  • Book value per share grew 5.2%: Book value per share grew 5.2% in the quarter and 26.7% for the year, before dividends and share repurchases.
  • Reported combined ratio 89.4%: The current accident year combined ratio before catastrophe losses was 87.9%, and the reported combined ratio was 89.4%. The prior-year quarter's reported ratio was 90.2%.
  • Net investment income record for year: Net investment income was $338.2 million in the quarter against $317.4 million. The full year reached a record $1.4 billion, up 7.2%.
Read the Q4 FY2025 earnings call summary

From this 10-K

W. R. Berkley is an insurance holding company writing commercial lines, and the thing that defines it is structural: it is not one insurer but sixty separate businesses, each sitting close to its own customers in a niche that needs specialist knowledge. It describes itself as among the largest commercial lines writers in the United States, and it reports in two segments.

W. R. Berkley Corp., the 10-K for 2025

W. R. Berkley is an insurance holding company writing commercial lines, and the thing that defines it is structural: it is not one insurer but sixty separate businesses, each sitting close to its own customers in a niche that needs specialist knowledge. It describes itself as among the largest commercial lines writers in the United States, and it reports in two segments.

The two segments

Insurance underwrites mostly commercial business: excess and surplus lines, admitted lines and specialty personal lines across the United States, plus business in Asia, Australia, Canada, Continental Europe, Mexico, Scandinavia, South America and the United Kingdom.

Reinsurance & Monoline Excess provides facultative and treaty reinsurance in the United States, the Asia Pacific region, Australia, Continental Europe, South Africa and the United Kingdom, alongside operations that retain risk only on an excess basis and certain programme management business.

Sixty businesses, and why

Each segment is made up of individual businesses defined by geography, product, service or industry served. The company's stated reason for running it this way is that decentralised operations let each business identify and respond quickly to changing market conditions and specific customer needs, while still getting the benefit of centralised capital, investment and reinsurance management, and central actuarial, financial, enterprise risk management and compliance support.

New businesses are started when an opening is identified and when the right people are found to lead one. Of the sixty businesses, 53 were built internally and seven came in by acquisition. That ratio is the clearest statement in the filing about how this company grows.

The ratings, which matter more here than elsewhere

For an insurer, the financial strength rating is what a policyholder is really buying. Thirty-three of the insurance company subsidiaries are rated A+ by A.M. Best, the second highest of fifteen possible ratings. Twenty-three subsidiaries rated by Standard & Poor's carry AA-, the fourth highest of twenty-seven. Moody's rates Berkley Insurance Company, Berkley Regional Insurance Company and Admiral Insurance Company at A1, the fifth highest of twenty-one. Twenty-five subsidiaries rated by Fitch carry AA-, the fourth highest of twenty-seven.

The filing quotes A.M. Best's own caveat, and it is worth repeating: a financial strength rating is an independent opinion of an insurer's ability to meet its ongoing policy and contract obligations, it is not assigned to specific policies or contracts, and it does not address any other risk. A.M. Best states its ratings are based on factors of concern to policyholders, agents and brokers, and are not directed toward the protection of investors. Ratings are reviewed periodically and can change.

What it says it is trying to do

The company describes its approach as meeting customer needs, maintaining a high quality balance sheet, and allocating capital to its best opportunities.

From W. R. Berkley's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended 31 December 2025. The filing

Written from the 10-K filed 27 February 2026: read the full 10-K.

The four quarters: Q1 FY2025 · Q2 FY2025 · Q3 FY2025 · Q4 FY2025

Income statement (profit and loss)

$ millionFY2025FY2024FY2023On the yearLast 8 years
Revenue14,70813,63912,143+7.8%
Interest expense127127127-0.0%
Pre-tax income2,2812,2641,754+0.7%
Income tax496510371-2.8%
Effective tax rate21.7%22.5%21.1%
Net income1,7791,7561,381+1.3%
Net margin12.1%12.9%11.4%
Diluted EPS$4.45$4.36$3.37+2.1%
$ million except per share.
Read moreFree cash flow is operating cash flow less capital expenditure; the effective tax rate is income tax over pre-tax income; margins are the line over revenue. Gross profit is revenue less cost of revenue, and operating income is revenue less the company's own total costs, where the statement does not print those lines. Those four are arithmetic on the filed numbers; everything else is as filed. Money is in $ million as the company files it, or in $ billion by the switch above the tables; per share figures and share counts are as they are.

Cash flow

$ millionFY2025FY2024FY2023On the yearLast 8 years
Operating cash flow3,5833,6782,929-2.6%
Cash from investing-2,029-2,184-1,962
Cash from financing-1,026-852-1,062
Depreciation and amortisation-48.1-171-20.9
Share-based compensation54.554.451.0+0.3%
Buybacks270304537-11.0%
Dividends paid700532501+31.6%
Dividend per share$1.85$1.40$1.29+32.1%
Diluted shares, weighted400m403m410m-0.8%
Shares outstanding at period end377m380m385m-0.8%

Balance sheet

$ millionFY2025FY2024FY2023On the yearLast 8 years
Shareholders' equity9,7018,3957,455+15.6%
Non-controlling interest11.112.313.8-10.2%
Trading liabilities66.373.49.4-9.6%
Other liabilities34,29332,08629,723+6.9%
Total liabilities and equity44,07140,56737,202+8.6%
Fixed assets596479427+24.6%
Goodwill1841841750.0%
Intangible assets86.097.0n/a-11.3%
Securities held for sale or to maturity25,04822,39820,178+11.8%
Trading assets1,2211,123938+8.7%
Cash and equivalents2,5401,9751,363+28.6%
Other assets14,39614,31214,121+0.6%
Total assets44,07140,56737,202+8.6%

10-K for the year ended 31 December 2025, filed 27 February 2026: the filing.