The Chubb Corp. (CB) Thursday posted first-quarter net income was $656 million or $2.48 per share, compared to $506 million or $1.83 per share in the comparable quarter last year. The latest quarter results reflected net realized investment gains of $138 million before tax, while the year-ago quarter reflected net realized investment gains of $56 million before taxes.
Operating income for the quarter rose to $566 million or $2.14 per share from $469 million or $1.70 per share in the prior year quarter.
On average, 22 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report a loss of $1.74 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Net premiums written for the quarter rose 4% to $3.05 billion from $2.94 billion in the prior-year quarter, while twelve analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $3.02 billion for the quarter.
The company stated that in the first quarter of 2013, it repurchased approximately 3.9 million shares of its common stock at a total cost of $326 million.
John Finnegan, President and Chief Executive, stated, "Our combined ratio was an 84.6%, reflecting the impact of higher rates, strong underlying underwriting performance and low catastrophe losses. We are also encouraged by the renewal rate increases we continued to obtain in all of our business units."
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com