Which Is a Better Investment, Markel Corp or W R Berkley Corp Stock?

By Jenna Brashear
September 03, 2026
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Sifting through countless of stocks in the Insurance industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in W. R. Berkley Corporation or Markel Group Inc. because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how W. R. Berkley Corporation and Markel Group Inc. compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About W. R. Berkley Corporation and Markel Group Inc.

W. R. Berkley Corporation, an insurance holding company, operates as a commercial line writer worldwide. The company operates through Insurance and Reinsurance & Monoline Excess segments. The Insurance segment underwrites commercial insurance business, including excess and surplus lines, admitted lines, and specialty personal lines. This segment also provides accident and health insurance and reinsurance products; insurance for commercial risks; casualty and specialty environmental products; insurance coverages for fine arts and jewelry exposures; excess liability and inland marine coverage for small to medium-sized insureds; and commercial general liability, umbrella, professional liability, directors and officers, commercial property, and surety products, as well as products for technology, and life sciences and travel industries. In addition, it offers cyber risk solutions; crime and fidelity insurance products; medical professional coverages; workers’ compensation insurance products; management liability and general insurance products; personal lines insurance solutions, including home, condo/co-op, auto, fine arts and collectibles, liability, collector vehicle, and recreational marine; law enforcement, public officials and educator's legal, and employment practices liability, as well as incidental medical, property, and crime insurance products; at-risk and alternative risk insurance program management services; professional liability; energy and marine risks; and insurance products to the Lloyd's marketplace. The Reinsurance & Monoline Excess segment provides treaty and facultative reinsurance solutions; property and casualty reinsurance products; facultative reinsurance products include automatic, semi-automatic, and individual risk assumed reinsurance; and turnkey products, such as cyber, employment practices liability insurance, liquor liability insurance and violent events. The company was founded in 1967 and is headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Markel Group Inc. engages in the insurance business in the United States, the United Kingdom, Bermuda, Germany, rest of the European Union, Canada, and the Asia Pacific. It operates through Markel Insurance, Industrial, Financial, and Consumer and Other segments. The company offers general and professional liability, specialty programs, workers' compensation, and marine and energy insurance; personal lines insurance, such as property coverage for homeowners; property insurance coverages, including fire, windstorm, hail, water damage, and catastrophe-exposed property risks, such as earthquake and wind; and credit and surety products. It also distributes exterior building products, such as siding, windows, doors, roofing, and gutters; invests in asset and wealth management companies; engages in the homebuilding of single-family homes, townhouses, and condominiums; designs and provides leather handbags and accessories; owns and operates manufactured housing communities; and sponsors teachers for placement. In addition, the company offers structural and architectural precast concrete; ornamental plants; industrial bakery equipment; over-the-road car-hauling equipment, such as trailers; cutter suction and auger dredges; and laminated oak and composite flooring for trailers. Further, it provides fire protection, life safety, and low-voltage solutions; heavy lift crawler cranes; erosion control and stormwater management; gas containment and transportation equipment; wall panel systems and dorm room furniture; insurance-linked securities investment and insurance management; equipment leasing; fronting and automobile collateral protection coverage; information technology consulting; data collection and pricing intelligence solutions; and concierge healthcare membership services. The company was formerly known as Markel Corporation and changed its name to Markel Group Inc. in May 2023. Markel Group Inc. was founded in 1930 and is headquartered in Glen Allen, Virginia.

Latest Insurance and W. R. Berkley Corporation, Markel Group Inc. Stock News

As of September 2, 2026, W. R. Berkley Corporation had a $26.5 billion market capitalization, compared to the Insurance median of $7.3 million. W. R. Berkley Corporation’s stock is down 2.1% in 2026, up 0.4% in the previous five trading days and down 5.36% in the past year.

Currently, W. R. Berkley Corporation’s price-earnings ratio is 14.0. W. R. Berkley Corporation’s trailing 12-month revenue is $14.9 billion with a 12.9% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 1.2%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $4.874 per share for the current fiscal year. W. R. Berkley Corporation currently has a 2.8% dividend yield.

As of September 2, 2026, Markel Group Inc. had a $22.5 billion market cap, putting it in the 87th percentile of all stocks. Markel Group Inc.’s stock is down 14.9% in 2026, up 1.3% in the previous five trading days and down 6.77% in the past year.

Currently, Markel Group Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 10.0. Markel Group Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $16.6 billion with a 13.8% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 12.7%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $94.080 per share for the current fiscal year. Markel Group Inc. does not currently pay a dividend.

How We Compare W. R. Berkley Corporation and Markel Group Inc. Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at W. R. Berkley Corporation and Markel Group Inc.’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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W. R. Berkley Corporation and Markel Group Inc. Growth Grades

Company Ticker Growth
W. R. Berkley Corporation WRB A
Markel Group Inc. MKL B

The foundation of growth investing is seeking out stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth that is expected to continue into the future.

In order to compute the growth score and assign it a letter grade, the percentile ranks for each of three components‐consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations‐must be determined. These three rank figures are added together, and the sum is ranked against the entire stock universe to arrive at a company’s Growth Score to create an equal distribution of grades.

The companies in the bottom 20% of the stock universe receive Growth Grades of F, considered to be very weak, while those in the top 20% receive A grades, which are considered very strong.

W. R. Berkley Corporation has a Growth Score of 89, which is Very Strong. Markel Group Inc. has a Growth Score of 64, which is Strong.

The Growth Grade Winner: W. R. Berkley Corporation

As you can clearly see from the Growth Grade breakdown above, W. R. Berkley Corporation has a more attractive growth grade than Markel Group Inc.. For investors who focus solely on how a company is growing relative to other companies in the same industry, W. R. Berkley Corporation could be a good stock to add to their portfolio. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

W. R. Berkley Corporation and Markel Group Inc.’s Quality Grades

Company Ticker Quality
W. R. Berkley Corporation WRB C
Markel Group Inc. MKL C

Like the Value Grade, AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the percentile rank of key metrics. Specifically, the Quality Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and the F-Score.

The score is variable, meaning it can consider all eight measures or, should any of the eight measures not be valid, the remaining measures that are valid. To be assigned a Quality Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) measure and corresponding ranking for at least four of the eight quality measures.

The Quality Score is used to assess the underlying “quality” of a particular stock. A higher-quality stock possesses traits associated with upside potential and reduced downside risk. Backtesting of the Quality Grade shows that stocks with higher grades, on average, outperformed stocks with lower grades over the period of 1998 through 2019.

Stocks receive better grades (higher scores) for having higher scores for the quality subcomponents and worse grades (lower scores) for lower scores for the subcomponents.

W. R. Berkley Corporation has a Quality Score of 51, which is Average. Markel Group Inc. has a Quality Score of 58, which is Average.

The Quality Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither W. R. Berkley Corporation or Markel Group Inc. has a high enough Quality Grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors who are considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolios. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if W. R. Berkley Corporation or Markel Group Inc. is the better investment when it comes to quality.

W. R. Berkley Corporation and Markel Group Inc.’s Momentum Grades

Company Ticker Momentum
W. R. Berkley Corporation WRB D
Markel Group Inc. MKL D

Momentum grades help to uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming. Momentum is based on the price change of a stock over a specified period relative to all other stocks.

Typically, AAII looks at the weighted relative strength over the trailing four quarters. The weighted four-quarter relative strength rank is the relative price change for each of the past four quarters. The most recent quarterly price change is given a weight of 40% and each of the three previous quarters are given a weighting of 20%.

W. R. Berkley Corporation has a Momentum Score of 37, which is Weak. Markel Group Inc. has a Momentum Score of 36, which is Weak.

The Momentum Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither W. R. Berkley Corporation or Markel Group Inc. has a strong enough Momentum Grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolios. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if W. R. Berkley Corporation or Markel Group Inc. is the better investment when it comes to momentum.

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Other W. R. Berkley Corporation and Markel Group Inc. Grades

In addition to Growth, Quality and Momentum, A+ Investor also provides grades for Value and Estimate Revisions.

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Earnings estimate revisions scores take into account the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, surprises beget further surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection. Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether W. R. Berkley Corporation and Markel Group Inc. pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, W. R. Berkley Corporation or Markel Group Inc. Stock?

Overall, W. R. Berkley Corporation stock has a Growth Score of 89, Momentum Score of 37 and Quality Score of 51.

Markel Group Inc. stock has a Growth Score of 64, Momentum Score of 36 and Quality Score of 58.

Comparing W. R. Berkley Corporation and Markel Group Inc.’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

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AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.



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