Hartford Financial Profit Up 22%

(RTTNews) - Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. (HIG) said Monday after the markets closed that its fourth quarter profit rose 22% from last year, helped mainly by improved property and casualty underwriting results and a reduction in Corporate core losses.

The company's core earnings per share also came in above analysts' expectations, but its quarterly revenue fell shy of analysts' forecast.

"Strong fourth quarter results concluded an outstanding year for The Hartford," said Hartford Chairman and CEO Christopher Swift. As we enter 2015, I am pleased with how the company's businesses are balancing profitability and top-line growth in this pricing and interest rate environment."

Hartford shares are currently losing 0.20% in after hours trading after closing the day's regular trading session at $39.56, up 66 cents or 1.70%.

Hartford has been weaning itself from non-core businesses in order to focus on property and casualty, group benefits and mutual fund businesses. In April, Hartford agreed to sell its Japanese operations to Orix Corp. for about $895 million. The company sold its individual life insurance business to Prudential Financial Inc. in 2012. The company also sold its UK variable annuity unit to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

For the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2014, the Hartford, Connecticut-based company reported net income of $382 million or $0.86 per share, compared to $314 million or $0.65 per share for the year-ago quarter.

Excluding special items, core earnings for the fourth quarter rose to $426 million or $0.96 per share from $382 million or $0.79 per share in the prior year quarter.

On average, 16 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $0.93 per share for the fourth quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Total revenue for the fourth quarter fell 3.3% to $4.62 billion from $4.78 billion in the same quarter last year. Three analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $4.69 billion for the fourth quarter.

Core earnings for the company's Property and Casualty business rose 5% to $316 million in the fourth quarter from $300 million a year earlier, largely due to improved underwriting results that were partially offset by lower investment income. Combined ratio for the segment, the percentage of premiums the insurer pays out in claims and expense, improved 3.7 percentage points from last year to 93.8%. Written premiums rose 5% to $2.5 billion.

Looking forward, Hartford forecasts full year 2015 core earnings of $1.55 billion to $1.65 billion and adjusted core earnings of $1.57 billion to $1.67 billion, or 4% to 11% growth.