Hartford Financial Services Beats Q4 Earnings Expectations

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc HIG reported fourth-quarter financial results Monday.

Revenues came in at $4.617 billion, in line with estimates of $4.69 billion and below the $6.09 billion reported in the year-ago period.

Core earnings totaled $426 million, or $0.96 per diluted share, above estimates of $0.93 per share, an increase of 22 percent compared to the year ago period.

Net income was $382 million, or $0.86 per diluted share, an increase of 32 percent from the fourth quarter of 2013.

Hartford's Chairman and CEO Christopher Swift commented, “For the full year, expanding profit margins in P&C, Group Benefits and Mutual Funds drove a 16 percent increase in core earnings per diluted share and a one point improvement in core earnings ROE to 8.4 percent. We also sold the Japan annuity business during the year, significantly reducing the company’s risk profile and contributing to the return of over $2 billion of capital to shareholders.”

Hartford announced that the company's full year 2015 core earnings outlook is $1.550 billion to $1.650 billion.

The 2015 outlook included total catastrophe losses of $293 million, after-tax, in Commercial Lines and Personal Lines and unfavorable PYD of $21 million, after-tax, in Commercial Lines due to the accretion of the discount on workers' compensation loss reserves.

The company's 2015 outlook for investment income is an average P&C portfolio yield of 3.9 percent, before tax, and limited partnership and other alternative investment (LP) returns of about 6 percent.

Hartford Financial Services traded at $39.48 in the after-hours session, down 0.20 percent.