American International Group's profit growth for next year may be less than investors expect because technology investments aimed at reducing costs of handling claims could come in higher than projected, Sterne Agee & Leach analysts say in a new report.

Specifically, the report says that while AIG's property and casualty unit's investments in claims and underwriting technology are benefiting the company's loss-ratio numbers, “we feel continued investments could lead to 2014 expense improvement falling short of some expectations.”

In consolidated trading at midday Tuesday, AIG was at $38.97. Its high at mid-day was $39.02, near its 52-week high of $39.90. AIG's 52-week low is $27.10.

The concerns by Sterne Agee analyst John Nadel were voiced after he and other analysts from the firm met with Peter Hancock, CEO AIG P&C and John Doyle, CEO Global Commercial.

Nadel says Hancock and Doyle did not provide a lot of specifics “on the long-term path of expenses.”

He adds, “Management reiterated previous comments that some investments being made should begin to level off by year-end 2013, with 2014 showing some improvement,” he said.

However, Nadel continues, “The company would not go into detail on where normalized expense base currently stands following mix changes and need for further investments.”

Nadel says that while the pace of investments may moderate, “we expect some ongoing investment into the business in the area of technology and analytics, and management indicated they would like to ultimately build their own internal cat-modeling capability.”

Special Reports /

Analyst Says AIG Profit Growth May Take Hit from Costs of Technology Investments

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