By Steve Eder
NEW YORK, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Allstate Corp, the largest publicly traded U.S. home and auto insurer, posted a fourth-quarter profit on Wednesday and beat estimates, helped by lower realized capital losses and improved operating income.
A strengthening investment portfolio helped the insurer reduce its net realized capital losses as credit writedowns also decreased in the fourth quarter.
Operating income also improved in the fourth quarter because of because of better results in both property liability and Allstate Financial.
'Our operating profits should continue to be strong next year,' Chief Executive Tom Wilson said in an interview.
Fourth-quarter net income was $518 million, or 96 cents a share. That compared to a net loss of $1.1 billion, or $2.10 a share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, the Northbrook, Illinois-based insurer reported earnings of $1.09 a share, beating analysts estimates of $1.01 by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Total revenues for the fourth quarter of 2009 were $8.1 billion, an increase of 22.7 percent from the fourth quarter of 2008.
Operating income rose to $592 million from $518 million a year ago.
Net realized capital losses, which have hampered Allstate's results in the past, were $33 million before taxes in the fourth quarter, down from a net realized loss of $1.9 billion in the year ago quarter.
'We still had close to $500 million of credit writedowns, but because we had strong performances in other parts of our portfolio, it offset that,' Wilson said.
Allstate had a number of changes to its leadership team in 2009 as it added a new heads of marketing, Allstate Protection, and Allstate Financial.
The company's shares closed at $28.60, down 13 cents. The shares have more than doubled in the past year.
(Reporting by Steve Eder, editing by Leslie Gevirtz) Keywords: ALLSTATE/ (Reuters email: steve.eder@reuters.com; +1 646 223 6069) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. 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.
NEW YORK, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Allstate Corp, the largest publicly traded U.S. home and auto insurer, posted a fourth-quarter profit on Wednesday and beat estimates, helped by lower realized capital losses and improved operating income.
A strengthening investment portfolio helped the insurer reduce its net realized capital losses as credit writedowns also decreased in the fourth quarter.
Operating income also improved in the fourth quarter because of because of better results in both property liability and Allstate Financial.
'Our operating profits should continue to be strong next year,' Chief Executive Tom Wilson said in an interview.
Fourth-quarter net income was $518 million, or 96 cents a share. That compared to a net loss of $1.1 billion, or $2.10 a share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, the Northbrook, Illinois-based insurer reported earnings of $1.09 a share, beating analysts estimates of $1.01 by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Total revenues for the fourth quarter of 2009 were $8.1 billion, an increase of 22.7 percent from the fourth quarter of 2008.
Operating income rose to $592 million from $518 million a year ago.
Net realized capital losses, which have hampered Allstate's results in the past, were $33 million before taxes in the fourth quarter, down from a net realized loss of $1.9 billion in the year ago quarter.
'We still had close to $500 million of credit writedowns, but because we had strong performances in other parts of our portfolio, it offset that,' Wilson said.
Allstate had a number of changes to its leadership team in 2009 as it added a new heads of marketing, Allstate Protection, and Allstate Financial.
The company's shares closed at $28.60, down 13 cents. The shares have more than doubled in the past year.
(Reporting by Steve Eder, editing by Leslie Gevirtz) Keywords: ALLSTATE/ (Reuters email: steve.eder@reuters.com; +1 646 223 6069) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. 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.