Insurance brokerage Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc. (MMC) on Tuesday reported a 1 percent increase in profit for the fourth quarter from last year, reflecting higher revenues at its risk and insurance as well as consulting segments. Earnings per share for the quarter matched analysts' estimates.
Risk and Insurance Services segment revenue for the quarter rose 3 percent from the prior-year period to $1.63 billion.
Marsh's revenue grew 4 percent to $1.42 billion or 3 percent on an underlying basis. International operations underlying revenue grew 5 percent, reflecting growth of 13 percent in Latin America and 3 percent in both EMEA as well as Asia Pacific. In the U.S./Canada division, underlying revenue was flat.
Guy Carpenter's revenue for the quarter was $198 million, an increase of 3 percent on both a reported and underlying basis.
Consulting segment revenues also increased 3 percent from the year-ago period to $1.38 billion. Of this, Mercer's revenue increased 7 percent to $1.00 billion or 6 percent on an underlying basis.
The company's operating margin edged up to 13.5 percent from 13.4 percent in the same period last year.
New York-based Marsh & McLennan's net income for the fourth quarter was $259 million or $0.47 per share, up from $256 million or $0.46 per share in the year-ago period.
Adjusted earnings for the quarter were $0.52 per share, compared to $0.46 in the same period last year. On average, twenty analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.52 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Revenues for the quarter grew 3 percent to $3.00 billion from $2.91 billion in the same period last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $3.01 billion.
For fiscal 2012, Marsh & McLennan's net income grew to $1.18 billion or $2.13 per share from $993 million or $1.79 per share in the prior year. Adjusted earnings per share were $2.15, compared to $1.77 in the previous year.
Revenues for the year grew 3 percent to $11.92 billion from $11.53 billion last year.
Analysts expected the company to earn $2.16 per share for the year on revenues of $11.95 billion.
MMC closed Monday's trading at $36.35, down $0.20 on a volume of 2.98 million shares.
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com