(RTTNews) - Wednesday, Everest Re Group, Ltd. (RE: News ) reported a swing to profit in the third quarter ended September 30, on higher revenues, as well as the absence of catastrophe losses recorded in the prior year quarter from Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

The property and casualty insurance company's net income for the third quarter was $228.62 million, or $3.75 per share, compared to a net loss of $233.13 million, or $3.79 per share, for the third quarter of 2008.

After-tax operating income, excluding realized capital gains and losses, was $209.36 million or $3.43 per share compared with after-tax operating income of $12.6 million or $0.20 per share for the comparable period year-ago.

On average, eleven analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $3.37 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Net premium earned for the quarter increased to $975.38 million from $931.85 million in the comparable period a year ago.

The Bermuda based company's total revenues for the quarter increased to $1.16 billion from $809.67 million in the year-ago period. Seven Wall Street analysts estimated revenues of $1.01 billion for the quarter.

Loss and combined ratios were 60.2% and 88.7%, respectively, for the quarter compared to 87.3% and 115.0% in the year-ago period. Last year's results were primarily impacted by catastrophe losses, emanating from Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.
Joseph Taranto, chairman and chief executive officer said, "We have achieved yet another milestone in Everest's history with shareholders' equity topping more than $6 billion at quarter end. Book value per share has increased 25%, since the beginning of the year, benefiting from strong earnings and the financial market recovery to date."

Everest Re's net investment income was relatively flat at $165.4 million, compared to the third quarter of 2008. Also, limited partnership income added $23.5 million to the quarter due in large part to income from partnerships investing in public equities.

Total claims and expenses declined to $882.81 million from $1.09 billion in the year-ago period.

The company said that it repurchased 491,731 of its shares during the quarter and 1.2 million of its shares since year end. Through September, the total cost of the repurchased shares under this program was $90.5 million, representing an average purchase price of $75.44 per share. The repurchases were made pursuant to a share repurchase authorization, under which there remains a 4.6 million balance authorization available.

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