Assurant Inc.'s (AIZ) second-quarter operating income slid 50%
from a year earlier as catastrophe losses and increases in loss
frequency due to weather activity weighed heavily on the company's
results.
Assurant--which provides health and life insurance as well as
coverage for such products as credit cards--has seen recent results
hit by lower revenue and a fall in net earned premiums.
Earlier this year, Moody's Investors Service lowered its outlook
on the company and its primary life- and health-insurance units,
noting recent health-care reform was hurting Assurant's health
business faster than it had expected.
Assurant reported a profit of $165.9 million, or $1.68 a share,
up from $164.7 million, or $1.46 a share, a year earlier. Operating
earnings, which exclude realized investment gains, slid to 76 cents
from $1.35 a year ago.
Total revenue declined 3.6% to $2.06 billion. Analysts polled by
Thomson Reuters had predicted operating earnings of 88 cents on
$2.02 billion in revenue.
In the company's specialty property unit, net operating income
slid 59%, as after-tax reportable catastrophe losses rose to $42.7
million from $5 million a year earlier.
Net earned premiums and other considerations slipped 4.4%, while
net investment income declined 0.8%.
Shares closed Wednesday at $34.89 and were fractionally lower in
after hours trade. The stock is down 9.4% since the start of the
year.
-By Mia Lamar, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-3207;
mia.lamar@dowjones.com