Prudential posts 3Q profit on market, sales gains

NEW YORK - Prudential Financial Inc., an insurance and investment company, on Wednesday posted its second straight quarterly profit, buoyed by market gains and strong sales of its investment products.

The results led the Newark, N.J., company to raise its forecast for the year.

Prudential said its financial services businesses earned $1.09 billion, or $2.35 per share, reversing a year-ago loss of $118 million, or 25 cents a year ago.

After-tax adjusted operating profit shot up 70 percent to $733 million, or $1.59 per share, from $430 million, or $1.02 per share, last year. The per-share results reflect a 9 percent increase in the number of outstanding shares, following a stock offering in June.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, on average, expected profit of $1.33 per share.

Revenue rose 4 percent to $6.6 billion, just short of analyst expectations for $6.65 billion.

Of the company's three divisions, its investment division showed the biggest turnaround. Adjusted operating earnings rose to $314, reversing a loss of $182 million last year. Individual annuity gross sales rose to $5.9 billion, from $2.5 billion a year ago.

Its insurance division reported adjusted operating income of $307 million, down from $339 million last year, weighed by lower results in its group insurance segment.

The international insurance and investments division reported operating income of $513 million, up from $497 million in the year-ago quarter.

Assets under management rose 6 percent to $641 billion, from $602 billion a year ago.

The company's "closed block" book of business — life insurance and annuity policies that were issued before the company went public in December 2001 but are still in force — reported a net loss of $8 million, compared with a loss of $58 million a year ago. The Class B shares that reflect performance of the closed block business do not trade.

Prudential said consolidated quarterly net income, which includes results from its financial services businesses and the closed block business, totaled $1.08 billion, compared with a loss of $176 million a year ago.

The company booked $234 million of pretax net realized investment losses, reflecting losses from impairments and sales of credit-impaired investments, partly offset by increases in market value of certain investments in Europe.

On the strength of recent results, Prudential raised its guidance for the year, and now expects profit between $5.40 and $5.60 a year, up from a prior forecast of $5.00 to $5.20 per share. Wall Street was expecting profit of $5.47 per share.

Prudential shares closed Wednesday's regular session down 45 cents at $46.56.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.