Travelers Cos. Inc. shares TRV, +4.29% rose 1.3% in premarket trade Wednesday, after the property & casualty insurer topped profit and revenue estimates for the third quarter. The company posted net income of $454 million, or $1.89 a share, for the quarter, down 31% from $662 million, or $2.62 a share, in the year-earlier period. Excluding one-time items, the company had per-share earnings of $2.20, well ahead of the $1.54 FactSet consensus. Revenue rose 6% to $9.303 billion, also ahead of the $8.850 billion FactSet consensus. Net written premiums came to $9.198 billion, up 10% from $8.324 billion a year ago, with premiums rising in all three of its business segments, namely business insurance, up 9%, bond & specialty insurance, up 8% and personal insurance, up 13%. The company said its catastrophe losses edged up to a pretax $512 million from $501 million a year ago, mostly due to the fallout from Hurricane Ian. The decline in adjusted EPS was due to lower net investment income and a lower underlying underwriting gain (i.e., excluding net prior year reserve development and catastrophe losses), partially offset by net favorable prior year reserve development compared to net unfavorable prior year reserve development in the prior year quarter, the company said in a statement. The company had net investment losses in the quarter of $93 million pretax, after gains of $8 million pretax a year ago. Shares have gained 7% in the year to date, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.43%, which counts Travelers as a member, has declined 16%, and the S&P 500 SPX, -0.81% has fallen 22%.
