Allstate Corporation’s (ALL – Free Report) fourth-quarter 2016 operating earnings per share of $2.17 beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.61. Earnings also soared 85% year over year on higher revenues.
However, operating income per diluted share was $4.87 in 2016, down 4.2% year over year. An increase of $853 million in pre-tax catastrophe losses during the year is likely to have contributed to the overall earnings decline.
Allstate generated total revenue of $9.3 billion in the fourth quarter. The top line surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $8.5 billion and also increased 6.8% year over year. The upside was mainly driven by premium growth as well as a decent increase in net investment income.
In 2016, the company’s total revenue of $36.5 billion grew 2.5% year over year, mainly due to a rise in property-liability insurance premiums.
Quarter in Detail
Property-liability insurance premiums amounted $7.9 billion in the fourth quarter, up 2.8% year over year. Net income of $761 million displayed 54.4% year-over-year growth on the back of a lower loss ratio. The underlying combined ratio of 87.7 grew 30 basis points over the last-year quarter due to increased expense ratio.
The net written premium of Allstate brand – Encompass – declined 10.2% and policies in force were 13.4% lower in the fourth quarter on a year-over-year basis.
The Esurance brandrecorded net written premium growth of 5.6% from the prior-year quarter. The upside was driven by a 5.5% increase in auto average premiums and modest growth in policies in force.
Allstate brand – Auto – reported net written premium growth of 3.9% in the fourth quarter. The improvement can be attributed to a 7.0% increase in average premiums.
Allstate brand – Homeowners – saw its net written premiums increasing slightly in the fourth quarter as average premiums increased by 1.5%. However, policies in force of this brand declined by 1.2%.
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