← All companies ← CMTG Manual CNC → ← CINF Insurance — Property & Casualty DGICA →

CNA, CNA Financial Corporation

Insurance — Property & Casualty financial

An insurance business, read on its underwriting result, the combined ratio, and the float it invests, rather than an earnings multiple.

Our insurance products primarily include commercial property and casualty coverages, including surety.

Our products and services are primarily marketed through independent agents, retail and wholesale brokers and managing general underwriters to a wide variety of customers, including small, medium and large businesses, insurance companies, associations, professionals and other groups.

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K

CNA · CNA Financial Corporation

The business

What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.

Revenue · FY2025

$15.0B

+5.0% YoY · 7% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $15.2B 5-yr avg $13.3B

Combined ratio 123% 5-yr avg 126%

Loss ratio 77% 5-yr avg 76%

Return on equity 11% 5-yr avg 10%

Next report Est. 11/2–11/5 · the 10-Q for the quarter ended late September · due within 40 days of period end · has filed ~35 days after · the wire records it on arrival

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.

What moves the needle: Underwriting discipline and the float. What decides it: whether the combined ratio stays below 100% so the policies make money on their own, how large the float is against equity, and what that float earns once it is invested. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on pricing power & competition, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
Is it a good business?: It runs an underwriting loss, about a 123% combined ratio, and must earn the difference back on the float. Book value per share, the measure Berkshire is judged on, has compounded about −0% a year across the record. The float runs about 2.5× equity, the leverage that magnifies both the underwriting and the investing. Whether the discipline holds through a soft market, and how the float is invested, are what the 10-K decides.

Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2016–2025

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left

2016’16	2017’17	2018’18	2019’19	2020’20	2021’21	2022’22	2023’23	2024’24	2025’25	TTMTTMJun 2026
											Income statement
$9.4B	$9.5B	$10.1B	$10.8B	$10.8B	$11.9B	$11.9B	$13.3B	$14.3B	$15.0B	$15.2B	RevenueRevenue
$7.0B	$7.1B	$7.3B	$7.7B	$8.1B	$8.4B	$9.1B	$9.9B	$10.6B	$11.1B	—	Premiums written (net)Prem. written
$6.9B	$7.0B	$7.3B	$7.4B	$7.6B	$8.2B	$8.7B	$9.5B	$10.2B	$10.9B	$11.0B	Premiums earnedPremiums
$2.0B	$2.0B	$1.8B	$2.1B	$1.9B	$2.2B	$1.8B	$2.3B	$2.5B	$2.6B	$2.6B	Investment incomeInv. inc.
$1.1B	$1.3B	$964M	$1.2B	$821M	$1.5B	$814M	$1.5B	$1.2B	$1.6B	—	Pretax incomePretax
$859M	$899M	$813M	$1.0B	$690M	$1.2B	$682M	$1.2B	$959M	$1.3B	$1.2B	Net incomeNet inc.
24%	31%	16%	18%	16%	19%	16%	21%	21%	21%	21%	Effective tax rateTax rate
											Cash flow & returns
$1.4B	$1.3B	$1.2B	$1.1B	$1.8B	$2.0B	$2.5B	$2.3B	$2.6B	$2.5B	$2.3B	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$1.3B	$1.2B	$1.1B	$1.1B	$1.8B	$2.0B	$2.5B	$2.2B	$2.5B	$2.4B	$2.3B	Owner earningsOwner earn.
76%	76%	76%	78%	80%	78%	76%	74%	75%	76%	77%	Loss ratioLoss
18%	18%	18%	19%	18%	18%	17%	17%	18%	17%	17%	Expense ratioExpense
≈ 119%	≈ 118%	≈ 125%	≈ 128%	≈ 131%	≈ 128%	≈ 128%	≈ 124%	≈ 128%	≈ 123%	≈ 123%	Combined ratioCombined
—	—	—	$127M	$119M	$15M	($32M)	$48M	$42M	$189M	—	Prior-yr reserve developmentReserve dev.
7%	7%	7%	8%	5%	11%	8%	12%	9%	11%	11%	Return on equityROE
0%	0%	−1%	1%	−2%	5%	−4%	4%	−1%	2%	2%	Retained to equityRetained/eq
$813M	$842M	$896M	$929M	$950M	$621M	$982M	$787M	$1.0B	$1.0B	$1.1B	Dividends paidDiv. paid
—	$0	$0	$23M	$18M	$18M	$39M	$24M	$20M	$34M	—	BuybacksBuybacks
($846M)	($424M)	($177M)	($225M)	($705M)	($1.2B)	($1.5B)	($1.8B)	($1.3B)	($1.4B)	—	Investing cash flowInv. cash
($673M)	($755M)	($1.1B)	($988M)	($902M)	($648M)	($1.0B)	($577M)	($1.1B)	($1.1B)	—	Financing cash flowFin. cash
($13M)	$9M	($10M)	$5M	$9M	($4M)	($19M)	$5M	($10M)	$16M	—	Exchange-rate effectFX
($116M)	$84M	($45M)	($68M)	$177M	$117M	($61M)	($130M)	$127M	($47M)	—	Change in cashΔ cash
											Balance sheet
$45.4B	$46.9B	$44.5B	$47.7B	$50.3B	$50.3B	$43.2B	$46.6B	$47.5B	$50.4B	$50.5B	Investments (total)Investments
$18.2B	$18.1B	$18.0B	$17.9B	$15.9B	$16.3B	$16.9B	$18.2B	$19.3B	$20.6B	—	Float (net reserves)Float
$55.2B	$56.6B	$57.2B	$60.6B	$64.0B	$66.6B	$61.0B	$64.7B	$66.5B	$69.4B	$69.9B	Total assetsAssets
$43.3B	$44.3B	$45.9B	$48.4B	$51.3B	$53.8B	$52.5B	$54.8B	$56.0B	$57.8B	—	Total liabilitiesTotal liab.
$12.0B	$12.2B	$11.2B	$12.2B	$12.7B	$11.1B	$8.5B	$9.9B	$10.5B	$11.6B	$11.2B	Shareholders’ equityEquity
											Per share
271M	272M	273M	273M	272M	273M	273M	272M	273M	272M	272M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$3.17	$3.30	$2.98	$3.67	$2.53	$4.34	$2.50	$4.43	$3.52	$4.69	$4.55	EPS (diluted)EPS
$4.94	$4.23	$4.21	$4.09	$6.43	$7.23	$8.99	$8.06	$9.18	$8.83	$8.29	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$3.00	$3.09	$3.29	$3.41	$3.49	$2.28	$3.60	$2.89	$3.76	$3.84	$3.90	Dividends / shareDiv/sh
$44.15	$45.00	$41.16	$44.83	$46.65	$40.71	$31.37	$36.34	$38.55	$42.66	$41.13	Book value / shareBVPS

Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded

	9-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	+5.3%/yr	+6.8%/yr
Owner earnings / share	+6.7%/yr	+6.5%/yr
EPS	+4.5%/yr	+13.1%/yr
Dividends / share	+2.8%/yr	+2.0%/yr
Capital spending / share	−5.8%/yr	+30.2%/yr
Book value / share	−0.4%/yr	−1.8%/yr

III

Quality & stewardship

Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.

Owner’s Scorecard

FY2025 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →

Is it a good business?

Combined ratio ≈ 123%

Underwriting loss

Total benefits, losses and expenses $13.4B ÷ premiums earned $10.9B

Industry peers: median 98%

What this means
The heart of a property-casualty insurer: claims and costs as a share of premiums. Below 100% means it is paid to hold the float, the gold standard; above 100% means it loses money on the policies and must make it back on investments. Approximate here, taken from the filer's total benefits, losses and expenses over premiums, so it can sit a point or two off the company's headline figure; a number held below 100% across cycles is the mark of a disciplined underwriter, the rarest thing in the business.
Return on equity 11%

Solid

Net income $1.3B ÷ equity $11.6B

Industry peers: median 10%

What this means
What it earns on shareholders' capital, the underwriting result plus what the float earns invested. Durably above the ~10% cost of equity is what compounds book value.

The float

Float (net reserves) $20.6B

1.8× equity

Loss and claim reserves, net of reinsurance: $20.6B, 1.8× equity

What this means
Money held against future claims and invested in the meantime. Buffett's insight was that good underwriting makes this float cost less than nothing, a pool of other people's money the owners earn on. Measured here from net loss and claim reserves only; it excludes unearned premiums and funds held, so the true float is somewhat larger than shown. The larger it is against equity, the more that leverage works, for better or worse.
Investment income $2.6B

12.4% on the float

Net investment income $2.6B, 12.4% on the float

What this means
What the float and capital earned this year. This is the second engine: an insurer that breaks even on underwriting still wins if the float is large and invested well.

The cost and the reserves

Cost of float —

Not enough data

What this means
Needs the full float arithmetic and a cleanly tagged underwriting total; a partial figure would mislead.
Reserve development +$189M

Past reserves fell short

Prior-year development, FY2025: unfavorable (past years strengthened) · record: 1 favorable, 6 unfavorable of 7

In the filing’s words Management’s narrative describes the year’s prior-year development as favorable, while the development line filed in the structured data is signed unfavorable. The two disagree, so neither is quoted as the fact here — read the filing linked above.

What this means
Each year an insurer restates what its old accident years actually cost. Persistent favorable development means management reserved honestly and released the cushion; persistent unfavorable development means past profits were overstated by under-reserving — the industry's chronic sin, and the single most tell-tale line an owner can read. Signed as the company files it: negative favorable, positive unfavorable.

All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.

Debt maturity

the debt note, SEC EDGAR →

Not how much it owes, but when it falls due, and against what. The ladder the company files, beside cash on hand and a year's owner earnings.

'26$0

'27$500M

'28$0

'29$500M

'30$500M

later$1.5B

Bars scaled to the largest single year; “later” is everything due after 2030, shown apart since it dwarfs the years.

Due in the next 12 months$0the first rung: what must be repaid or rolled over within the year

Within two years$500Mthe near wall, the part most exposed to today’s credit conditions

Biggest single year$500Min 2027the lumpiest maturity, where a refinancing, if needed, is largest

Total scheduled principal$3.0Bevery year plus what lies beyond, as the footnote totals it

Maturity schedule extracted from the company’s Dec 31, 2025 annual report and reconciled to the balance-sheet debt.

Management, ownership & pay

read the proxy →

From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid, beside what the business earned for its owners in the same years.

Fiscal year	Chief executive	Pay, as filed	“Actually paid”	Owner earnings
2021	Mr. Douglas M. Worman	$14.2M	$16.2M	$2.0B
2022	Mr. Douglas M. Worman	$15.1M	$14.9M	$2.5B
2023	Mr. Douglas M. Worman	$16.1M	$17.5M	$2.2B
2024	Mr. Douglas M. Worman	$16.1M	$18.8M	$2.5B
2025	Mr. Douglas M. Worman	$12.6M	$12.6M	$2.4B

Both pay figures are the company’s own, from the pay-versus-performance table its proxy statement files. “As filed” is the Summary Compensation Table total: salary, bonus, and equity awards at their value on the day of grant. “Actually paid” is the SEC’s prescribed recalculation, which re-marks those equity awards to what they became as they vested; it can swing far above or below the filed figure in either direction, and negative years occur. Owner earnings are the whole business's, from the record above, for the same fiscal years.

CEO pay ratio91:1
What the chief earns for every dollar the median employee makes, per the 2026 proxy. A high ratio alone settles nothing; some businesses are genuinely top-heavy in scarce skill. A runaway figure is where Buffett starts asking whether the board is doing its job.

Peers, Insurance — Property & Casualty

The same industry, side by side on the underwriting lens. Each column names the period it is read over; the group median at the foot is the line to read each figure against.

Company	Revenuelatest FY, USD	Combined ratiomedian over the record	Loss ratiomedian over the record	Yield on floatmedian over the record	ROTCEmedian over the record
ACGLArch Capital	$19.9B	88%	55%	5.1%	14%
LLoews Corp.	$18.5B	149%	76%	9.7%	6%
EGEverest Group	$17.7B	100%	70%	5.5%	9%
MKLMarkel Group Inc.	$15.5B	—	59%	4.1%	12%
CNACNA Financial Corporation	$15.0B	127%	76%	9.1%	8%
WRBW.R. Berkley	$14.7B	—	62%	5.6%	14%
RNRRenaissanceRe	$12.8B	94%	60%	8.6%	10%
CINFCincinnati Financial Corporation	$12.6B	98%	66%	10.3%	14%
Group median	—	99%	64%	7.1%	11%

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

price / tangible book

An insurer is worth a multiple of its tangible book value, and the multiple it deserves is set by the return it earns on that book. Type today’s price; we show what you would be paying against what CNA Financial Corporation’s record justifies.

Today’s price $

The assumptions Cost of equity 10% Long-term growth 3%

Tangible book / share, delivered−1%/yr’20→’25

The justified multiple is (return on tangible equity − growth) ÷ (cost of equity − growth). An insurer earning exactly its cost of equity is worth about one times tangible book; the premium above that prices each point of durable excess return. A higher cost of equity lowers the justified multiple for an insurer.

Enter a price above to run it.

Price / tangible book—

Justified by the return—

Normalized return on tangible equity8%

Price / book—

Earnings yield—

P/E (3-yr avg ’23–’25)—

Graham’s price gate—

Graham applied the same standards to financial enterprises (Intelligent Investor ch.14): the 15× multiple cap on averaged earnings, and P/E times price-to-book at most 22.5. The gate marks the bargain-hunter’s floor, not a verdict.

Tangible book $11.0B on 271M shares, a 8% normalized return on it. The dials set the multiple such a return would justify; your price sets the multiple you are paying. It assumes the insurer keeps earning that return; an underwriting cycle, a reserve shortfall or a bad year on the float changes it, which is what the record and the 10-K are for.

Weigh CNA against another business →

The owners of CNA: the meeting and the votes →

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "CNA Financial Corporation (CNA), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/CNA, data as of 2026-08-17.

Manual order: ← CMTG its page in the Manual CNC →

Industry order: ← CINF the Insurance — Property & Casualty chapter DGICA →