By Dave Sebastian
CNA Financial Corp. said its profit rose for the second quarter as its underlying combined ratio improved and catastrophe losses fell.
The commercial property and casualty insurance company on Monday posted net income of $368 million, compared with $151 million in the same period last year. It reported earnings of $1.35 a share, compared with 55 cents a share in the year-ago period.
Core earnings for the period was $341 million, or $1.25 a share. Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting operating earnings of $1.12 a share.
The underlying combined ratio was 91.4%, compared with 93.2% in the year-ago period. It posted an underlying loss ratio of 59.5%, compared with 59.3% in the same period last year, which had a 0.9-point benefit from lower-loss frequency due to Covid-19 shelter-in-place restrictions.
Net investment income was $591 million before taxes, compared with $534 million in the comparable period last year.
Property and casualty core income rose to $351 million from $125 million in the prior year. Life and group core income rose to $43 million from $14 million. Losses in the corporate and other segment widened to $53 million from $40 million, driven by lower allocated net investment income.
Write to Dave Sebastian at dave.sebastian@wsj.com
