The shares of Metlife Inc (NYSE:MET) rose nearly 2% after the largest U.S. life insurer announced its third quarter 2014 financial results. The insurer reported two-fold increase in its profits from the prior year quarter because of its high premiums.
The insurer reported net revenues of $17.92 billion during its third quarter 2014 with 6.5% revenue growth when compared with the last year quarter. Net premiums during this quarter closed at $9.69 billion with 7% increase from the prior year period. The most exciting figure for Metlife Inc (NYSE:MET) was the profit or net income of $2.09 billion during this quarter, which increased nearly twice when compared with the net income of $0.9 billion last year.
The company surpassed market expectations in operating earnings at $1.60 per share compared with the expected $1.38 per share. Steve Kandarian, CEO of Metlife has been working closely with insurers from Vietnam, Chile, and Malaysia to increase the market of the company. At the same time, the company is restricting its exposure in capital-intensive businesses including variable annuities. The same has been followed with job cuts in the domestic market.
While talking about the primary market of the company, Cathy Seifert, Standard & Poor’s Capital IQ Equity Analyst, said,
“For all their talk about getting growth in less-developed markets, their biggest presence is still in the U.S. As labor force participation increases, demand for many of the products should increase.”
Earlier this month, Metlife Inc (NYSE:MET) announced to fight back against the proposal of U.S. Risk council to categorize the insurer as a non-bank SIFI (systemically important financial institution) entity considering its increasing role in the global economic environment. Metlife would be the third insurer following American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG) and Prudential Financial Inc (NYSE:PRU) to receive this status.
The shares of Metlife Inc closed at $53.25 in the extended trading sessions.
This article has been written by Prakash Pandey.
