Prudential posts 3Q profit on market, sales gains
NEW YORK (AP) - Prudential Financial Inc., an insurance and
investment company, on Wednesday posted its second straight
quarterly profit, buoyed by market gains and strong sales of its
investment products.
The results led the Newark, N.J., company to raise its forecast
for the year.
Prudential said its financial services businesses earned $1.09
billion, or $2.35 per share, reversing a year-ago loss of $118
million, or 25 cents a year ago.
NYSE:PRU Updated: 16:02 ET 47.67 -0.30 |
After-tax adjusted operating profit shot up 70 percent to $733
million, or $1.59 per share, from $430 million, or $1.02 per share,
last year. The per-share results reflect a 9 percent increase in
the number of outstanding shares, following a stock offering in
June.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, on average, expected profit
of $1.33 per share.
Revenue rose 4 percent to $6.6 billion, just short of analyst
expectations for $6.65 billion.
Of the company's three divisions, its investment division showed
the biggest turnaround. Adjusted operating earnings rose to $314,
reversing a loss of $182 million last year. Individual annuity
gross sales rose to $5.9 billion, from $2.5 billion a year ago.
Its insurance division reported adjusted operating income of
$307 million, down from $339 million last year, weighed by lower
results in its group insurance segment.
The international insurance and investments division reported
operating income of $513 million, up from $497 million in the
year-ago quarter.
Assets under management rose 6 percent to $641 billion, from
$602 billion a year ago.
The company's ``closed block'' book of business - life insurance
and annuity policies that were issued before the company went
public in December 2001 but are still in force - reported a net
loss of $8 million, compared with a loss of $58 million a year ago.
The Class B shares that reflect performance of the closed block
business do not trade.
Prudential said consolidated quarterly net income, which
includes results from its financial services businesses and the
closed block business, totaled $1.08 billion, compared with a loss
of $176 million a year ago.
The company booked $234 million of pretax net realized
investment losses, reflecting losses from impairments and sales of
credit-impaired investments, partly offset by increases in market
value of certain investments in Europe.
On the strength of recent results, Prudential raised its
guidance for the year, and now expects profit between $5.40 and
$5.60 a year, up from a prior forecast of $5.00 to $5.20 per share.
Wall Street was expecting profit of $5.47 per share.
Prudential shares closed Wednesday's regular session down 45
cents at $46.56.
11/04/09 18:33
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