Old Republic International Corp. (ORI), an insurance underwriting business, Wednesday said its first-quarter loss widened from the same quarter a year ago, hurt by a decline in operating revenues that stemmed from ongoing weakness in the Company's housing-related mortgage guaranty. A decline in general insurance profit also negatively impacted the first-quarter results.
Loss for the first quarter widened to $53.9 million or $0.23 per share from a loss of $19.6 million or $0.08 per share in the same quarter a year ago.
On average, four analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the Chicago, Illinois-based company to report a loss of $0.33 per share for the first quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items such as one-time charges or gains.
Pre-tax loss for the first quarter widened 128.6% to $92.8 million from $40.5 million, primarily due to a 35.2% decline in general insurance operating income.
Pretax loss from the mortgage guarantee segment also widened to $144.6 million from $122.3 million in the same quarter a year ago.
Consolidated pre-tax loss for the first quarter also widened 134.0% to $92.7 million from $39.6 million in the same quarter last year.
Net operating loss for the fist quarter widened to $0.23 per share from $0.08 per share in the same quarter a year ago.
Quarterly operating revenues were $878.5 million, lower than $950.7 million in the year-ago period, primarily hurt by a decline in revenues from the General insurance segment.
Revenues from General insurance declined to $523.7 million from $581.5 million in the same quarter a year ago.
In the general insurance segment, net premiums earned for the first quarter declined to $457.3 million from $512.7 million in the first quarter of last year, due to a decline in volumes of commercial auto - trucking- , workers' compensation, and consumer credit indemnity coverages. Net investment income declined to $63.4 million from $64.5 million.
ORI closed Wednesday's trading at $11.37, down $0.80 or 6.57% on a volume of 4.204 million shares on the NYSE. In the after hours, the Stock further lost $0.48 or 4.22%, trading at $10.89.
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