(RTTNews) -  Insurance and investment products provider Protective Life Corp. (PL: News ), Wednesday reported a swing to profit for the third quarter on higher revenues and lower benefits and expenses.
The Birmingham, Alabama-based company's net income for the third quarter was $27.6 million or $0.32 per share, compared to net loss of $100.0 million or $1.41 per share for the same period last year.

Results for the recently ended quarter included $20.3 million or $0.23 per share of net realized investment losses, after tax, compared to $162.5 million or $2.29 per share a year ago.

Excluding this item, operating income, after-tax, for the third quarter was lower at $47.9 million or $0.55 per share, compared with $62.5 million or $0.88 per share last year. On average, ten analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.76 per share. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Total revenues for the period rose to $691.07 million from $510.08 million, falling short of $786.98 million anticipated by Wall Street analysts.

Net premiums and policy fees increased to $300.83 million from $297.73 million in the year-ago period, offset by a decrease in Net investment income to $409.96 million from $423.52 million reported for the same July-September period of the prior-year. However, net other-than-temporary-impaired losses were lower at $30.97 million compared with $202.6 million last year, leading to the favorable top-line rise in the recently ended quarter.

Total benefits and expenses for the period declined to $649.44 million from $670.03 million a year earlier.
The company noted that earnings in the quarter were negatively impacted by the substantial amounts of excess liquidity, less favorable mortality, unusual expense items and impairments in the investment portfolio. " We are moving cautiously to deploy excess liquidity and expect earnings to be impacted by lower yields on short term investments into next year", it added.

Third quarter income before taxes was $41.64 million compared with a loss of $159.94 million last year.

For the nine-month period, net income was $140.47 million or $1.77 per share versus a loss of $25.94 million or $0.36 per share reported last year. Operating income, after tax, was $190.3 million or $2.40 per share, compared with $183.2 million or $2.57 per share in the previous year. Total revenues for the nine-month period rose to $2.19 billion from $1.92 billion for the same period one-year ago.

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