The Travelers Companies, Inc. (NYSE:TV) , through its subsidiaries, provides various commercial and personal property and casualty insurance products and services to businesses, government units, associations, and individuals primarily in the United States. The company operates in three segments: Business Insurance; Financial, Professional, and International Insurance; and Personal Insurance.
The numbers came in at $2.02 per share earnings on revenue of $5.5 billion. The company’s reports roundly beat analysts who had expected a great deal of underperformance compared to last year. In the fourth quarter of 2011 the company earned
Analysts expect the company to report first quarter earnings of $1.52 a share on revenue of $5.7 billion. In Q12011 the company earned $1.51 a share with a top line number of $5.44 billion. In Q42011 revenue came in at $6.7 billion.
Many analysts will be focused on not the EPS and revenue numbers but the company’s remarks on the insurance marketplace and pricing. During the last earnings call, the CEO announced that the company had renewal premium rate gains of 8%. Analysts will be closely listening into the call to hear if there are any changes to that number.
The company managed some of the increase in price per share year on year by repurhasing around 5 million shares. The concentrates earnings on fewer shares and makes them relatively more valuable.
KBW expected good earnings due to the early arrival of tornado season, which hit parts of mid-west U.S., and due to the fact that the impact of the natural disasters appears to have been quite mild.
Travelers is one of the largest insurance companies and is one of the components of the Dow Jones. The earnings results will be a bellwether for the rest of the insurance market which has been hard hit in recent years by severe weather and problems resulting from the financial crisis. Travelers success today will hopefully point the sector to a more fruitful time without the stress and havoc of years previous.
One of TRV’s competitors, Chubb (NYSE:CHB) will be reporting earnings today as well.
At the time of this writing shares of the company are up on the news in premarket trading.
