MetLife reported a sharp drop in quarterly profit, reflecting in part losses in private equity and derivative investments.
For the second quarter, the insurer’s adjusted earnings fell 43% to $758 million, or 83 cents per share. Analysts had expected earnings of 91 cents per share.
Net investment income dipped 13% to $4.1 billion while MetLife also posted $710 million in net derivative losses due to stronger equity markets and higher longer-term interest rates.
“MetLife delivered solid underlying business performance in the second quarter,” CEO Michel Khalaf said in a news release.
“The decline in our private equity portfolio was squarely within our expectations,” he added. “On underwriting, our well-diversified set of businesses provided meaningful offsets to increased claims from COVID-19.”
MetLife’s overall premiums and fees dropped 13% to $10.4 billion, with premiums and fees in the U.S. retirement income unit falling 58% to $511 million.
Among the company’s regions, only EMEA saw profit growth, with a 51% gain. The U.S. and Europe both dropped 29% and Latin America was down 17%.
MetLife said the pandemic’s effects in the third quarter would be largely offset by underwriting margins.
MetLife’s shares fell 1.8% to $36.50 in extended trading Thursday. For the year to date, the stock is down 29.3%.