Life insurer Prudential Financial Inc. (PRU), Wednesday said its profit for the fourth quarter nearly tripled from last year, helped mainly by lower investment losses and stronger international business.
For the fourth quarter, net income of Financial Services Businesses to Prudential Financial surged to $606 million or $1.26 from $213 million or $0.45 per share last year.
Adjusted operating income, which excludes special items, rose to $1.97 per share from $1.76 per share last year. On average, 19 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $1.76 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.
Prudential's realized investment losses dipped to $568 million from $906 million last year.
On a consolidated basis, which includes results of both Financial Services Businesses and Closed Block Business, Prudential Financial's attributable net income jumped to $686 million from $177 million last year.
Total revenues for the quarter grew to $10.26 billion from $8.02 billion last year. Wall Street analysts on a consensus estimated revenues of $10.20 billion for the quarter.
Among Financial Services Business divisions, at U.S. Retirement Solutions and Investment Management, adjusted operating income rose to $688 million from $624 million last year.
At U.S. Individual Life and Group Insurance division, adjusted operating income inched up to $201 million from $200 million last year.
The International Insurance segment adjusted operating income rose to $692 million from $588 million last year.
Chief Executive John Strangfeld said, "During the year, addition of the Star and Edison businesses in Japan and divestiture of several non-core operations have made us a stronger, more focused company. The merger of Star and Edison into Gibraltar Life was successfully completed on January 1, 2012, and the integration of these companies continues on track."
Prudential Financial acquired AIG Star Life Insurance Co. Ltd. and AIG Edison Life Insurance Co. from American International Group Inc. (AIG) in February last year for $4.8 billion.
Book value per share rose to $75.04 from $63.11 last year.
PRU closed Wednesday's trading on the NYSE at $60.54, up $0.11 or 0.18%, on a volume of 3.7 million shares. In after hours, the stock gained $0.05 or 0.08%.
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