Hartford Group Quarterly Income Falls
NU Online News Service, July 31, 2:45 p.m. EST ?The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., Hartford, is reporting $185 million in net income for the second quarter on $3.9 billion in revenue, compared with $226 million in net income on $3.8 billion in revenue for the second quarter of 2001.
Operating income, which excludes investment losses, increased to $291 million from $262 million.
Net results for the latest quarter include $152 million in losses on investments in telecommunications securities, with $71 million of that amount coming from losses on bonds issued by WorldCom Inc., Clinton, Miss., Hartford said.
Improved results in the company's property and casualty lines helped offset lower numbers from the life insurance unit, Hartford reported.
"Our property-casualty lines are all benefiting from what is becoming one of the strongest cyclical swings in pricing seen since the mid 1980′s," said Ramani Ayer, Hartford's chairman and chief executive.
The life insurance unit is reporting $101 million in net income on $1.6 billion in revenue for the second quarter, compared with $162 million in net income on $1.7 billion in revenue for the comparable quarter in 2001.
The group disability, group life and fixed annuity businesses all did well, the company said, and a new unit that sells 529 college savings plans recorded $31 million in sales in its first full quarter of operation.
Sales of variable annuities fell 9 percent from the second quarter of 2001, to $2.3 billion, but second-quarter variable-annuity sales were stronger than first-quarter variable-annuity sales, Hartford said.
Hartford revised its expectations for 2002 earnings and now expects earnings, excluding items, of between $4.55 and $4.75 a share, down from its previous forecast of $4.65 to $4.95 a share. Analysts have been looking for earnings of $4.75 a share, according to First Call.
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