The U.S. diversified holding company Loews Corp. (L) announced on Monday that its fourth quarter of fiscal 2011 net profit tumbled 42%, mainly due to the decline in investment income as well as the increase in insurance reserves. Its net profit declined from $466 a year earlier, or $1.12 per share, to $268 million, or 67 cents per share.
The analysts polled by FactSet on average forecasted the company would post profit of 90 cents per share and the revenue would fall 6%, to $ 3.48 billion.
Loews attributed the profit decline to the lower investment income from CNA Financial and the insurance reserves increase of $104 million, and a drop in profitability of the business Diamond Offshore.
Over the fiscal 2011 full year, the company’s revenue fell to $14.13 billion from $14.62 billion in the same period last year. Its net earnings reduced from the previous year figure of $1.29 billion, or $ 3.07 per share to $1.06 billion, or $2.63 per share.
L – Loews stock price