The insurance industry has performed well this reporting cycle with robust earnings from leading players. Prominent players such as Prudential Financial (PRU – Free Report) , Chubb Corp (CB – Free Report) , Allstate (ALL – Free Report) and Travelers (TRV – Free Report) surpassed both earnings and revenue estimates. While American International (AIG – Free Report) missed earnings estimates, MetLife (MET – Free Report) and Aflac (AFL – Free Report) lagged revenue estimates.
Insurance Earnings in Focus
MetLife, the U.S. life insurer behemoth, reported robust earnings of $1.11 per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a penny and increased 3% from the year-ago quarter. Revenues increased 8.2% year over year to $15.79 billion but were well below estimates of $15.89 billion. PRU, the second-largest U.S. life insurer, also beat earnings estimates by 9 cents. Earnings improved 9.3% year over year. Revenues increased 13.6% year over year to $15.3 billion, surpassing the consensus estimate of $12.87 billion.
One of the leading property and casualty insurers, Chubb, outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate on both the top and bottom lines by $750 million and 86 cents, respectively. Another property and casualty insurer, Allstate, also topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate on earnings and revenues by 39.3% and 15.3%, respectively. On a year-over-year basis, earnings declined 3.7% while revenues grew 4.7%.
AIG, one of the largest commercial insurers in the United States and Canada, missed earnings estimates by 26.9%. Earnings per share of $1.60 reported by Aflac, a seller of supplement health insurance, trumped the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 3.2% and increased 11.1% from the year-ago quarter. However, revenues fell 10% year over year to $5.4 billion and fell short of estimates by 0.3%.
Personal property and casualty insurer Travelers posted earnings per share of $2.26, easily crushing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 76 cents but declining 28.8% year over year. Revenues grew 3.6% year over year to $7.5 billion and were ahead of the estimated $7.1 billion.
