Safeco reported third quarter net income hit $255.7 million, up from $101 million in the comparable year-ago period.
The Seattle-based property-casualty insurer's combined ratio was 88.7 compared to 97.5 in the same period last year. Pretax catastrophe losses came in at $22.5 million compared with $178.1 million in third quarter last year.
Total revenues in the quarter were $1.66 billion compared to $1.59 billion a year ago. Net written premiums decreased 3.8 percent to $1.4 billion.
Safeco chief executive officer Paula Rosput Reynolds said that "business process improvement, capital management and market development are all on track."
Morgan Stanley property-casualty analyst William Wilt noted that the $1.46 earnings per share price failed to meet the consensus estimate of $1.52, although adding 11 cents to the Safeco number to account for a one-time cost-saving initiative would have put it over the top.
"Auto insurance premiums were down 6.1 percent versus our estimate of 5 percent down," Mr. Wilt wrote. "Unit count, which has fallen for several consecutive quarters, was down 4.3 percent."
More importantly, the company's preferred auto book unit count was down 0.9 percent. "This represents a steady loss of market share that continued for four or more quarters," he wrote.
The company said it had taken steps in the third quarter that will produce annualized savings of $70 million, nearly half of which will be in personnel savings.
The company said it expects to take a restructuring charge totaling $26 million this year for these savings.
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