QBE, a general insurer, experienced a drop in its first-half insurance operating results, causing its shares to fall on Thursday. The company’s shares initially hit a low of A$14.96 before declining by 2.4% to 15.23 Australian dollars (US$9.94), marking it as one of the worst performers on the ASX 200 during this trading session.
While QBE’s net profit for the six months ending June 30 rose from a restated US$48 million to US$400 million compared to the previous year, its statutory insurance operating result decreased slightly from the prior period’s US$386 million to US$377 million. QBE attributed this decline to a combination of factors, including premium rate increases, targeted new business growth, current and prior year catastrophe costs, and the upfront net cost of the reserve transaction to reinsure certain prior accident year claims in North America and International.
Analysts from Citi noted that QBE’s dividend of 14 Australian cents per share marked a 56% increase from the previous year but fell slightly below consensus forecasts.
Despite these challenges, QBE shares have shown resilience, with an increase of approximately 13% so far this year.
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