Life insurance provider MetLife Inc. (MET), Thursday posted a profit for the second quarter, driven by hefty investment gains, as well as higher investment income. Quarterly operating earnings grew 41%, and came in well ahead of the analysts' expectations.
The New York-based company reported net income attributable to common stockholders of $1.5 billion or $1.84 per share for the second quarter, compared to a loss of $1.4 billion or $1.74 per share in the prior year quarter.
Result for the quarter include net investment gains of $1.47 billion, compared to losses of $3.83 billion in the previous year quarter.
Excluding items, operating earnings grew to $1.0 billion or $1.23 per share from $723 million or $0.88 per share in the year-ago quarter. On average, 17 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $1.00 per share for the second quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Second quarter operating revenues increased 5% to $12.83 billion from $12.23 billion in the same quarter last year. Six analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $13.05 billion for the second quarter.
Robert Henrikson, chairman, president & CEO of MetLife, said, "MetLife continued to deliver strong results during the second quarter as we achieved top line growth and increased operating earnings by 41% over the prior year period."
Premiums, fees & other revenues rose 4% to $8.68 billion from $8.38 billion in the second quarter of 2009, driven by growth in both the U.S. and International Businesses.
U.S. Business premiums, fees & other revenues were $7.2 billion, up 2%, as a 34% increase in Retirement Products was offset by lower pension closeout sales in Corporate Benefit Funding.
Premiums, fees & other revenues for Insurance Products, which includes group life, individual life and non-medical health insurance, were up 2%, driven by an increase in group life.
Premiums, fees & other revenues for Retirement Products, which includes the company's U.S. annuity products, grew 34% to $766 million in the second quarter 2010, due to increased fee revenue.
Premiums, fees & other revenues for Corporate Benefit Funding, which includes the U.S. and U.K. pension closeout businesses, structured settlements and other corporate benefit funding products, increased 17% to $688 million, due to lower pension closeout sales.
International premiums, fees & other revenues rose 21% to $1.2 billion from a year ago, attributable to business growth across the company's three international regions.
Net written premiums for Auto & Home improved 2% to $764 million from the second quarter 2010.
Total operating revenues for MetLife Bank declined 16% year-over-year to $337 million, due to lower mortgage refinancing activity.
Net investment income for the second quarter grew 7% to $4.09 billion from $3.73 billion a year earlier.
Total operating expenses increased to $11.88 billion from $10.64 billion in the second quarter of 2009.
MetLife closed Thursday's regular trading at $40.20, up 90 cents or 2.29%, on a volume of 11.86 million shares. In after-hours, the share further gained $1.40 or 3.48%. The stock has been moving in a range of $32.00 - $47.75 for the past 52 weeks, with a three-month average volume of about 7.41 million shares.
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