Hartford Profit Falls

(RTTNews) - Hartford Financial Services Group Inc (HIG) on Monday reported a decline in first-quarter profit, despite growth in premiums, due mainly to the absence of gains recorded last year.

CEO Christopher Swift said even as businesses fared well, it had to wade through a period of low interest rates and a highly competitive U.S. property and casualty pricing cycle.

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 2014, Hartford agreed to sell its Japanese operations to Orix Corp for about $895 million. Earlier it sold its individual life insurance business to Prudential Financial in 2012, and its UK variable annuity unit to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.

Hartford posted first-quarter net income of $467 million, compared with $495 million last year. On a per share basis, earnings were $1.08 versus $1.03 a year ago, on a lower share count.

Excluding items, core earnings for the quarter were $1.04 per share, compared with $1.05 per share in the prior year.

On average, 16 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.97 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Results for the prior-year quarter included a $32 million, after-tax, benefit for New York State Workers' Compensation Board assessments and a $25 million, after-tax, reduction in favorable property and casualty loss and loss adjustment expense reserve development.

The prior year also had $29 million of income from discontinued operations earned by the Japan annuity business that was sold in June 2014.

This was partly offset by a $36 million reduction in net realized capital losses, after-tax and deferred acquisition costs, Hartford said.

Hartford said its revenues for the first quarter were marginally up at $4.62 billion.

Analysts expected revenues of $4.71 billion for the quarter.

Core earnings for the company's Property and Casualty business slid 15 percent from last year to $329 million.

Hartford said its property and casualty combined ratio before catastrophes and prior year favorable loss reserve development was 91.7 percent, essentially flat with last year, excluding the 2 point benefit from New York State Workers' Compensation Board assessments.

HIG closed Monday at $41.40, down $0.44 or 1.05%, on a volume of 3.9 million shares on the NYSE. In after hours, the stock gained $0.20 or 0.48% at $ 41.60. In the past year, the stock has trended in the range of $33.64 - $43.42.