Travelers Profit Beats on Fewer Catastrophic Losses

TravelersTravelers reported quarterly earnings that beat Wall Street's expectations on Tuesday, as the company saw fewer catastrophic losses.

Source: Source: CNBC | Published on July 23, 2013

The company posted second-quarter earnings excluding items of $2.13 per share, up from $1.26 a share in the year-earlier period. Meanwhile, revenue increased to $5.82 billion from $5.87 billion a year ago.

Analysts had expected Travelers to report earnings per share of $1.60 per share on $5.97 billion in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters.

Travelers saw an 85 percent surge in after-tax net income to $925 million, due largely to a rise in operating income and realized investment gains. Underwriting gains swung to a profit of $281 million, versus a $62 million loss in the comparable year-ago quarter.

"Given our focus on improving profitability, the underwriting results over recent quarters are gratifying. However, given the environment of low interest rates and volatile weather patterns, we will continue to seek higher margins," said Travelers CEO Jay Fishman. "With improved returns as well as our strategy of returning excess capital to shareholders, we remain well positioned to deliver shareholder value,"