KFDA - NewsChannel 10 / Amarillo, TX: newschannel10.comCNA Financial posts profit

CNA Financial posts profit

NEW YORK (AP) - CNA Financial Corp. said Monday that declining catastrophe losses and impairment charges helped improve its profitability in the third quarter.

CNA Financial earned $263 million, or 86 cents per share, for the period ended Sept. 30. It lost $331 million, or $1.23 per share, a year ago.

Excluding certain investment losses, the company earned $331 million, or $1.11 per share. Analysts on average expected a profit of 92 cents per share, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.

CNA is 90 percent owned by Loews Corp., a conglomerate led by New York's Tisch family.

With no major hurricanes and fewer natural disasters during the July-September period, CNA's catastrophe losses declined, to $15 million from $168 million last year.

Impairment charges tied to weakening investments also shrank significantly, helping CNA turn a profit. CNA said its realized investment losses declined to $67 million from $423 million a year ago.

With credit markets improving throughout the year, financial companies have been able to reduce their investment charges in recent quarters. Financial investments plummeted to their lowest prices last fall amid the peak of the credit crisis.

Net premiums written declined 8 percent, to $1.48 billion from $1.6 billion last year.

In midday trading, shares of CNA rose $1.14, or 5.2 percent, to $22.91.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.