Allstate’s Q1 Net Income Plunged, with Hailstorms to Blame

The 2016 first quarter (and two severe hailstorms) left its mark on the Allstate Corp., with net income during the period plunging more than 65 percent. Echoing trends from other property/casualty insurers, net investment income also took a dive.

As expected, the property/casualty insurer booked $827 million in catastrophe losses in Q1, versus $294 million over the same period in 2015. That mega-catastrophe hit led to $217 million in net income applicable to common shareholders, or $0.57 per diluted common share, down from $648 million in Q1 2015, or $1.53 per diluted common share and a drop of 66.5 percent.

With catastrophes factored in, Allstate’s property-liability combined ratio jumped to 98.4, compared to 93.7 in the 2015 first quarter.

Alongside those numbers, net investment income hit $731 million during the quarter, a 14 percent drop from the prior year quarter.

Allstate Chairman and CEO Thomas Wilson noted in prepared remarks that the insurer’s “broad-based business model enabled us to cover the costs of two severe hailstorms” and still produce $322 million in operating income during the quarter.

Here are some highlights of the Allstate results:

• Allstate’s property-liability division produced $7.5 billion in net premiums written during the quarter, $7.7 billion in net premiums earned, and $302 million in net investment income. In the 2015 first quarter, those numbers came in at $7.3 billion, $7.4 billion and $358 million, respectively.

• Allstate Financial reported $566 million in premiums and contract charges during the 2016 first quarter, versus $537 million in the 2015 first quarter. Net investment income for Q1 was booked at $419 million, down from $484 million over the same period last year.

• Esurance produced 2.5 percent in net written premium growth for Q1, reflecting a 1 percent dip in policies in force. Allstate said that a 5.2 percent increase in auto average premium more than offset this. Esurance’s combined ratio was at 106.2, which Allstate noted was 11.6 points better than in Q1 2015.

• Encompass net written premium dropped 6.7 percent compared to the same period last year, and policies in force declined by 9.6 percent versus Q1 2015. A 105.8 combined ratio reflects, in part, 13.3 points of catastrophe losses ($41 million) during the quarter.

Source: Allstate