Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc.

Oakmark U.S. Concentrated Strategy initiated a new position in Marsh & McLennan Companies during the second quarter of 2026. The firm views the world's largest insurance broker as a leader in an oligopolistic market with strong organic revenue growth and consistent margin expansion. Management's rebranding efforts include an expense program, leveraging AI to improve productivity, and centralizing technology and operations to drive efficiencies. The stock has fallen out of favor due to softening insurance rates and macroeconomic uncertainty, which Oakmark sees as an opportunity to invest at an attractive price. Marsh & McLennan closed at $192.19 per share on July 28, 2026, with a market capitalization of $91.72 billion.

Marsh & McLennan Companies reported second quarter 2026 earnings and updated on its share repurchase program and automation initiatives with SS&C Blue Prism. The stock trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.2 times, which is above the estimated fair P/E of 13.7 times and the US Insurance industry average of 12.1 times, yet a discounted cash flow model from Simply Wall St estimates a fair value of $283.79 per share, implying the stock is 37.8% undervalued at its current price of $176.40. The company generated $27.9 billion in revenue and $3.98 billion in net income, and its P/E sits at a modest discount to close peers trading at 23.5 times. The mixed valuation signals leave investors weighing whether the premium multiple will compress toward industry levels or if the cash-flow-based discount represents a buying opportunity.

Marsh & McLennan Companies posted second-quarter revenue of $7.4 billion, up 6% from a year earlier, with adjusted earnings per share rising 9% to $2.96. Underlying revenue growth accelerated to 5%, driven by strong demand across risk, insurance, and consulting services despite continued pricing pressure in commercial insurance and reinsurance. Consulting revenue jumped 10% to $2.6 billion, with Mercer's wealth business recording its best growth quarter since 2016 and Marsh Management Consulting delivering its fastest quarterly growth in more than two years. Risk and insurance services revenue increased 4% to $4.8 billion, though Guy Carpenter's revenue fell 2% as reinsurance rates declined, with the property catastrophe rate-on-line index down 16% at midyear. The company repurchased $200 million of stock in the quarter, bringing first-half buybacks to $1.5 billion, and raised its 2026 capital deployment target to approximately $5.5 billion.

Marsh & McLennan Companies is expanding its investment offerings through its Mercer business by partnering with American Beacon Advisors to launch a new suite of model portfolio solutions, Mercer & American Beacon Model Portfolios. The collaboration combines Mercer's institutional investment research and portfolio construction capabilities with American Beacon's fund management and distribution network. The solutions are designed for financial advisors, wealth managers and multi-family offices seeking professionally managed, diversified portfolios that can adapt to changing market conditions. The suite includes five risk-based portfolios built around thematic investing, dynamic asset allocation and active risk management, providing exposure to long-term growth themes such as artificial intelligence, the energy transition and demographic shifts. The partners have also introduced income-focused portfolios that balance capital preservation with yield opportunities, allowing advisors to address a broader range of client objectives.

StockStory highlights two S&P 500 stocks to own for decades and one to avoid. TransDigm is favored for its 9.5% average organic revenue growth over the past two years, 33.8% annual earnings per share growth over five years, and a strong 19.6% free cash flow margin. Marsh is picked for its 9.3% annual revenue growth over five years, massive $27.52 billion revenue base, and robust 15.9% free cash flow margin. Solventum is questioned due to flat projected sales, weak demand, and a 30.8 percentage point decline in free cash flow margin over five years.

Carlyle Group is introducing a new climate risk framework for its $475 billion portfolio at London Climate Action Week. The framework, developed with insurance broker Marsh and backed by institutional investors including Mubadala and Sampension, provides portfolio managers a four-step process to assess asset exposure to extreme weather, measure resilience gaps, calculate loss reduction from upgrades, and use those findings to negotiate better insurance terms such as premium credits and lower deductibles. Steve Hatfield, Carlyle's co-head of global sustainability, said the goal is to shift from reacting after damage to pricing resilience before storms, floods, droughts, or heat exposure hit asset values. Several major institutional investors have already shown interest, and leading insurance carriers are expected to road test the framework in coming months.

Ryan Specialty posted the strongest first-quarter results among five tracked insurance brokers, with revenue rising 15.2% year on year to $795.2 million and beating analyst estimates by 2.1%. Marsh reported revenue of $7.60 billion, up 7.6% and exceeding expectations by 2.9%, while Brown & Brown's revenue grew 35.4% to $1.90 billion but missed organic revenue estimates. Arthur J. Gallagher's revenue increased 27.7% to $4.75 billion, in line with forecasts, and Baldwin Insurance Group's revenue climbed 28.7% to $532.2 million, surpassing estimates by 3.2%. As a group, the five brokers' revenues beat consensus by 1.7%, though their average share price has fallen 3.8% since reporting.

Apple is benefiting from an expanding enterprise footprint that is becoming a key growth driver, with professional services firm Marsh deploying a large-scale refresh of corporate devices to iPhone 17 and adopting Mac for internal AI development in the second quarter of fiscal 2026. The company's installed base has surpassed more than 2.5 billion devices, and for the June quarter Apple expects revenues to grow 14% to 17% year over year with gross margin guidance of 47.5% to 48.5%. Apple's integrated hardware, software, and enterprise services approach, including the launch of the all-in-one Apple Business platform, is making its ecosystem more accessible for organizations, while its investment in AI and Apple silicon positions Mac as a preferred platform for enterprise-grade AI development. The company faces stiff competition from Dell Technologies and Alphabet, which are also expanding their enterprise footprints, with Dell booking $24.4 billion of AI orders in the first quarter of fiscal 2027 and Alphabet's Google Cloud revenues surging 63% year over year to $20 billion in the first quarter of 2026. Apple shares have gained 9.7% year to date, underperforming the broader Zacks Computer and Technology sector's return of 20%, and the stock carries a Zacks Rank #2, or Buy, with a fiscal 2026 consensus earnings estimate of $8.75 per share, suggesting 17.29% year-over-year growth.