- New-Home Sales Jump to Highest Level in Over Year
- Consumer Mood Improves, But Anxiety Over Finances
- Jobless Claims Below 500,000, Durable Orders Slip
- Garlic Price Rises Surpass Gold, Stocks in China
- Judge Erases Couple's $525,000 Mortgage Payment
- Half of Banks' Losses May Still Be Hidden: IMF Head
- Seeking Deals, Holiday Fliers Get Early Start
- Turkey Day 101: How Well Do You Know Your Bird?
- Americans Ditch Planes for Trains this Thanksgiving
- Art Cashin: Caution 'Growing' in Financials, Dividend Moves
- Topless Business Is Taking Off
- 3 Software Stock Picks from Lazard's Senior Analyst
- Schork Oil Outlook: Gas Bulls Pinning Hopes on Mother Nature
- Toyota Makes Recall Fix And So Long Saab
- Investors Bet on a New Year's Rally For eBay
- Why You Should Play the Reflation Trade: Stock Picker
- Citi Mortgage Reveals What Treasury Won't
- S&P to Hit 1,200 by Year-End: Chief Investor
MOST SHARED
- Ritz-Carlton ?Struggling? in the US: President
- The 'Real' Jobless Rate: 17.5% Of Workers Are Unemployed
- Garlic Price Rises Surpass Gold, Stocks in China
- Oil Price to Average $75.40 in 2010: Poll
- Obama Reiterates Commitment to Boost US-India Ties
- Half of Banks' Losses May Still Be Hidden: IMF Head
- New-Home Sales Jump 6.2% To Highest Level in Over Year
- Jobless Claims Below 500,000, Durable Orders Slip
- Americans Ditch Planes for Trains this Thanksgiving
Text Size 
By Lilla Zuill NEW YORK, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Allstate Corp, the largest publicly traded U.S.
home and auto insurer, swung to a profit on Wednesday from a large year ago loss, helped by stronger revenue, and fewer catastrophe claims. A year ago, hurricanes Gustav and Ike were largely responsible for $1.82 billion in catastrophe losses, leaving a gaping hole in Allstate's results.
Investment losses from the rapid erosion in credit markets added to its wounds. Third quarter net income was $221 million compared with a net loss of $923 million in the year-ago quarter. "It feels a lot different than a year ago," Chief Executive Tom Wilson said in an interview. "We are back on course and I feel really good about where the company is heading." Allstate's total revenue rose 3.6 percent in the quarter to $7.6 billion, something Wilson attributed partly to improvement in customer retention. But there was one sore point for Wilson. "I am still not happy with our homeowners business. It is not earning an adequate return," he said. That division has taken steps to boost profits and expects to benefit from rate increases in several states, he added. Allstate's operating earnings, which exclude investment gains and losses, were also vastly improved in the quarter, but fell two cents short of analysts' average forecasts. The operating profit of 99 cents a share, compared with a loss of 35 cents a share last year, missed analysts' forecast of $1.01 a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. In the latest quarter, catastrophe losses fell to $407 million and total realized capital losses narrowed to $519 million from $1.3 billion in the year-ago period. Capital losses can rise or fall with swings in the value of securities. Book value, a key valuation measure for investors, rose 16 percent from the end of June to $32.29 a share. The shares of the Northbrook, Illinois-based insurer fell 0.4 percent, or 12 cents, in the regular session on Wednesday to $29.62 a share and were not active in trading after the results. (Reporting by Lilla Zuill; editing by Andre Grenon) Keywords: ALLSTATE/ (lilla.zuill@thomsonreuters.com;+1 646 223 6281) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved.
The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
Print
Email
- Here's how key provisions of the health care reform bill would impact your insurance and how you'll pay for it.
- Playboy will outsource its publishing operations in a bid to become profitable again.
- Remember when auto shows were major events where new models could generate buzz?
- After nine years the NBA’s minor league equivalent is finally coming into its own.
- Bill Griffeth is taking a leave of absence from CNBC and Power Lunch for a year. Here's a message from Bill.
- For nearly three decades, these on-call experts have been dishing advice on how to – and not to – cook turkey.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes