← All companies ← CRUS Manual CRWD → ← CCG Insurance Brokers EQH →
CRVL, CorVel Corp.
CorVel is an independent nationwide provider of medical cost containment and managed care services designed to address the escalating medical costs of workers' compensation benefits, automobile insurance claims, and group health insurance.
CorVel applies certain technology, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing, to enhance the management of episodes of care and the related health-care costs.
We provide services to insurance companies, third-party administrators ("TPAs"), government entities, and self-administered employers to assist them in managing the increasing medical costs of workers' compensation, group health and auto insurance, and monitoring the quality of care provided to claimants.
The business
What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.
Next report By 11/8 · the 10-Q for the quarter ended late September · due within 40 days of period end · has filed ~37 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 it is
- Revenue is Patient Management Services (62%) and Network Solutions Services (38%).
- What moves the needle
- Commissions on the premiums it places, and organic growth. What decides it: insurance prices in the market, since it earns a slice of them; new business won and kept; and a capital-light fee stream that carries none of the underwriting risk of the insurers it sells for. 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?
- Operating margin has been modest for a fee business (median 11%). It earns this on little capital, so return on equity has run near 26%, the leverage of a model that needs almost no plant to grow. A high return that does not fade can mark a moat, but whether the commissions keep renewing as rates turn is what the 10-K settles, not the multiple.
Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.
Where the money comes from
read the 10-K →Patient Management Services is 62% of revenue, with Network Solutions Services the other meaningful line at 38%.
- Patient Management Services62%$597M
- Network Solutions Services38%$362M
From the segment footnote of the company's own 10-K. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.
The record
Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.
The record, 2017–2026
realized figures from each filing · older years to the left| 2017’17 | 2018’18 | 2019’19 | 2020’20 | 2021’21 | 2022’22 | 2023’23 | 2024’24 | 2025’25 | 2026’26 | TTMTTMJun 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | |||||||||||
| $519M | $558M | $596M | $592M | $553M | $646M | $719M | $795M | $896M | $959M | $984M | RevenueRevenue |
| 9.2% | 8.6% | 10.3% | 10.3% | 10.7% | 13.1% | 11.8% | 12.0% | 13.5% | 14.9% | 15.4% | Operating marginOp. mgn |
| 5.7% | 6.4% | 7.8% | 8.0% | 8.4% | 10.3% | 9.2% | 9.6% | 10.6% | 11.5% | 11.7% | Net marginNet mgn |
| $48M | $48M | $62M | $61M | $59M | $85M | $85M | $95M | $121M | $143M | — | Pretax incomePretax |
| $29M | $36M | $47M | $47M | $46M | $66M | $66M | $76M | $95M | $110M | $115M | Net incomeNet inc. |
| 38% | 25% | 24% | 22% | 22% | 21% | 22% | 20% | 21% | 23% | 24% | Effective tax rateTax rate |
| Cash flow & returns | |||||||||||
| $31M | $40M | $63M | $58M | $77M | $37M | $56M | $70M | $92M | $124M | $114M | Owner earningsOwner earn. |
| ($31M) | ($28M) | ($15M) | ($32M) | ($17M) | ($30M) | ($26M) | ($29M) | ($36M) | ($45M) | — | Investing cash flowInv. cash |
| ($25M) | ($7M) | ($27M) | ($57M) | ($21M) | ($80M) | ($82M) | ($36M) | ($27M) | ($48M) | — | Financing cash flowFin. cash |
| ($4M) | $27M | $36M | ($8M) | $56M | ($42M) | ($26M) | $34M | $65M | $62M | — | Change in cashΔ cash |
| 21% | 21% | 24% | 25% | 21% | 31% | 33% | 31% | 30% | 28% | 28% | Return on equityROE |
| 21% | 21% | 24% | 25% | 21% | 31% | 33% | 31% | 30% | 28% | 28% | Retained to equityRetained/eq |
| Balance sheet | |||||||||||
| $235M | $274M | $318M | $416M | $425M | $415M | $394M | $455M | $546M | $643M | $690M | Total assetsAssets |
| $29M | $56M | $92M | $83M | $140M | $98M | $71M | $106M | $171M | $233M | $256M | Cash & investmentsCash+inv |
| $97M | $103M | $123M | $227M | $204M | $203M | $192M | $207M | $224M | $249M | — | Total liabilitiesTotal liab. |
| $139M | $171M | $195M | $190M | $220M | $212M | $202M | $248M | $322M | $394M | $409M | Shareholders’ equityEquity |
| Per share | |||||||||||
| 58.7M | 57.1M | 57.0M | 55.8M | 54.5M | 54.4M | 52.8M | 52.0M | 52.0M | 51.6M | 50.9M | Shares out (diluted)Shares |
| $8.83 | $9.77 | $10.45 | $10.61 | $10.14 | $11.88 | $13.62 | $15.28 | $17.22 | $18.57 | $19.32 | Revenue / shareRev/sh |
| $0.50 | $0.62 | $0.82 | $0.85 | $0.85 | $1.22 | $1.26 | $1.47 | $1.83 | $2.14 | $2.26 | EPS (diluted)EPS |
| $0.53 | $0.71 | $1.11 | $1.04 | $1.42 | $0.69 | $1.06 | $1.35 | $1.76 | $2.40 | $2.23 | Owner earnings / shareOE/sh |
| $2.36 | $3.00 | $3.42 | $3.40 | $4.04 | $3.91 | $3.83 | $4.76 | $6.19 | $7.64 | $8.03 | Book value / shareBVPS |
Share counts before 2023 are restated ×3 for a stock split, so per-share figures sit on one basis.
| 9-yr | 5-yr | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue / share | +8.6%/yr | +12.9%/yr |
| Owner earnings / share | +18.3%/yr | +11.1%/yr |
| EPS | +17.5%/yr | +20.2%/yr |
| Capital spending / share | +5.8%/yr | +22.7%/yr |
| Book value / share | +13.9%/yr | +13.6%/yr |
Quality & stewardship
Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.
Owner’s Scorecard
Is it a good business?
- Operating margin 14.9%Modest fee marginOperating income $143M ÷ revenue $959MIndustry peers: median -2%
What this means
The heart of a insurance broker: how much of each fee dollar survives the cost of running the business. Commissions are a slice of the premiums it places, earned without taking the underwriting risk itself, so it is a capital-light fee stream that rises with new business, retention and the price of insurance. A high margin held for years, through a market it does not control, is the operational mark of a real franchise.
- Net margin 11.5%SolidNet income $110M ÷ revenue $959M
What this means
What reaches the owner after tax and interest. For a capital-light fee business this should be a wide share of revenue; when it is thin despite a high operating margin, debt taken on for acquisitions is usually the reason, so read it next to the balance sheet.
- Return on equity 28%Very high (≥25%)Net income $110M ÷ equity $394MIndustry peers: median 1%
What this means
Because the business ties up little capital, a healthy fee stream throws off a high return on the equity behind it. Read it with the buyback record: returning capital lifts this ratio honestly, but heavy debt taken to do so can flatter it.
All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.
Current Position
as of the latest quarter, Jun 30, 2026Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.
- Cash & short-term investments$256M
- Receivables$111M
- Other current assets$138M
- Accounts payable$20M
- Other current liabilities$240M
From the company's latest filing.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Michael G. Combs | $1.4M | $4.5M | $37M |
| 2023 | Michael G. Combs | $2.1M | $3.4M | $56M |
| 2024 | Michael G. Combs | $967k | $1.9M | $70M |
| 2025 | Michael G. Combs | $1.2M | $2.1M | $92M |
| 2026 | Michael G. Combs | $1.3M | $472k | $124M |
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.
- Insider ownership39.7%
The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.
- CEO pay ratio20:1
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.
- Stock-based compensation$5M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares in fiscal 2026, 0.6% of revenue, equal to 3.8% of operating profit. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. One trap: the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.
Peers, Insurance Brokers
The same industry, side by side on fee margins. Each column names the period it is read over, and a median resting on fewer than three years carries that count beside it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each figure against.
| Company | Revenuelatest FY, USD | Op. marginmedian over the record | Net marginmedian over the record | ROEmedian over the record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BWINThe Baldwin Insurance Group Inc. | $1.5B | -3.2% | -4.3% | -6% |
| HGTYHagerty Inc. | $1.5B | 3.2% | 5.0% | 52% |
| CRVLCorVel Corp. | $959M | 11.2% | 8.8% | 26% |
| ARXAccelerant Holdings Class A | $913M | -8.3% | -14.2% | -98%2y |
| YBYuanbao Inc. | $648M | — | 26.4% | 39%1y |
| WDHWaterdrop Inc. | $590M | -0.3% | 12.7% | 7% |
| CCGCheche Group Inc. | $446M | -4.3% | -3.4% | -17% |
| LIFEEthos Technologies Inc. | $388M | 19.0%2y | 18.8%2y | — |
| Group median | — | -0.3% | 6.9% | 7% |
The price
What a price has to assume.
What the price implies
reverse-DCFType today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what CorVel Corp. has delivered.
CorVel Corp.’s latest year runs above its own through-cycle margin — the reported figure may flatter a peak. So the tool opens on the through-cycle base, Graham’s averaging cutting both ways; clear the toggle below to read the latest year exactly as reported.
Through the cycle, CorVel Corp. earns about $89M on its 9.3% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 12.9% margin runs above that; the reported figure may flatter a peak you'd be paying on. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year. It comes pre-checked here for that reason, the same rule that already normalizes a trough; clear it to price the year as filed.
—
9.0% = the 4.71% 10-year Treasury (Aug 18, 2026) + 4.29 points of equity premium. The rate you require is yours to set.
Enter a price above to run it.
A dated snapshot of the price you typed, the assumptions you set, and what the page showed for them. A snapshot is never edited after it is saved. Your notebook is yours alone — the commitment states what is stored and what we will never do.
Graham capped the multiple at 15×; Buffett and Munger let that rule go: a wonderful business can deserve 50× if the thesis holds. The gate marks the bargain-hunter's floor.
Prefilled with the 10-year Treasury (4.71%, as of Aug 18, 2026). Edit it for today’s exact figure, or a AAA corporate yield.
Graham measured a stock against the bond you could own instead, the heart of his margin of safety. Enter a price above to weigh the owner-earnings yield against this bond.
Free cash flow $114M on 51M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-08-03; net cash $256M. The base opens on the through-cycle figure (the latest year sits above the record’s own median, and Graham’s averaging cuts both ways); clear Normalize to use the year as filed. Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. Capex ($37M) runs well above depreciation ($33M), so this is a build-out; Steady-state swaps total capex for maintenance (≈ depreciation), lifting the base to about $119M, the cash it would throw off if it stopped expanding. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.
Manual order: ← CRUS its page in the Manual CRWD →
Industry order: ← CCG the Insurance Brokers chapter EQH →