CNA Financial Posts Drop In Q3 Profit

CNA Financial (NYSE: CNA) reported a drop in its third-quarter profit.The Chicago, Illinois-based company posted quarterly net income of $213 million, or $0.79 per share, compared to $272 million, or $1.01 per share, in the year-ago period. The company's operating income came in at $0.68 per share, while adjusted net operating income came in at $0.80 per share.The company's revenue came in at $2.37 billion in the period. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.78 per share on revenue of $2.24 billion.Property & Casualty Operations' net operating income slipped to $241 million from $330 million. After-tax catastrophe losses came in at $10 million, versus $28 million.After-tax net investment income dropped to $346 million from $386 million.The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share.Net operating income at CNA Commercial dropped $67 million y/y, while net operating results at Hardy slipped $27 million."Our year to date underlying loss ratios for both Specialty and Commercial continue to show improvement compared with full year 2013," said Thomas F. Motamed, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CNA Financial Corporation. "We remain focused on our strategy to provide our customers deep, industry-focused expertise and to drive underwriting margin improvement while accepting the tradeoff of growth."CNA Financial shares rose 0.51% to close at $39.08 on Friday.