Property and casualty insurance firm The Hartford has reported a 15% increase in its net revenue to $438m for the third quarter of this year, compared to $381m for the same period in 2015.

The company's core earnings surged 13% to $413m, in comparison to $364m in Q3 2015.

The company has attributed its Q3 2016 profits to the change in net realized capital gains, post-tax and deferred policy acquisition costs (DAC), increased net investment revenue along with a decreased unlock charge, partially offset by a $60m income tax benefit in Q3 2015.

The Hartford chairman and CEO Christopher Swift said that the company has got strong margins and investment results, which also includes higher limited partnership returns.

Net income per diluted share has been reported at $1.12 for Q3 2016, an increase of 24% from the Q3 2015 figure of $0.90. Likewise, the core earnings per diluted share went up by 23% to $1.06, in comparison to the $0.86 figure registered in Q3 2015.

The Hartford has also repurchased 34.5 million common shares for $1.5bn during the past four quarters.

Its board has increased the company’s quarterly dividend by 10% to $0.23 per share of common stock, in comparison to the $0.21 per share in Q3 2015.

Commercial Lines segment earned the company $272m in Q3 2016, which is an increase of 29% from the $211m in Q3 2015.

On the other hand, the personal lines unit’s net income grew by 53% to $29m in Q3 2016, in comparison to the $19m revenue in the same period last year.

Swift said: “I am particularly pleased with results in Commercial Lines, where pricing and retention trends are sound, contributing to a 1 point improvement in the combined ratio before catastrophes and prior year development.

“In Personal Lines, we continue to execute automobile profitability improvement initiatives including aggressive pricing and underwriting actions. While personal automobile results remain challenged, I am confident that our initiatives will improve results over the coming quarters."


Image: The Hartford reported net income of $438m in third quarter 2016. Photo: courtesy of renjith Krishnan and freedigitalphotos.net.