Travelers (TRV) rises despite increased catastrophe losses hitting profits

Travelers (NYSE: TRV) shares climbed over 1% premarket Thursday on the back of its latest earnings report, which saw the company top consensus revenue expectations, but miss earnings estimates.

The insurance firm posted Q2 earnings of $0.06 per share, well below the $2.57 per share, in the prior-year quarter. The decline was put down to higher catastrophe losses. Revenue for the quarter came in at $10.01 billion versus the consensus estimate of $9.97 billion.

Catastrophe losses were $1.48 billion pre-tax compared to $746 million pre-tax in the prior year quarter.

"This quarter we reported strong underlying results and investment returns, as well as net favorable prior year reserve development, which were essentially offset by an historic level of industry-wide catastrophe losses," said Alan Schnitzer, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

He added: "The fact that we were able to generate positive core income notwithstanding $1.5 billion of pre-tax catastrophe losses reflects the strength of our franchise and the resiliency of our underlying business model."

By Sam Boughedda

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