United Fire Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:UFCS) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript
United Fire Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:UFCS) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript November 5, 2023
Operator: Good morning. My name is Anthony and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the UFG Insurance Third Quarter 2023 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. Thank you. I will now turn the call over to UFG VP and Director of Investor Relations, Tim Borst. You may now go ahead.
Tim Borst: Good morning and thank you for joining this call. Yesterday afternoon, we issued a press release on our results. To find a copy of this document, please visit our website at ufginsurance.com. Press releases and slides are located under the Investors tab. Joining me today on the call are UFG President and Chief Executive Officer, Kevin Leidwinger; Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Julie Stephenson; and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Eric Martin. Before I turn the call over to Kevin, a couple of reminders. First, please note that our presentation today may include forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements include risks and uncertainties and are not a guarantee of future performance.
An elderly customer discussing her retirement options with a smiling life insurance agent.
These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations. The actual results may differ materially due to a variety of factors which are described in our press release and SEC filings. Also, please note that in our discussion today, we may use some non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these measures to the most comparable GAAP measures are also available in our press release and SEC filings. At this time, I will turn the call over to Mr. Kevin Leidwinger, CEO of UFG Insurance.
Kevin Leidwinger: Thank you, Tim and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our third quarter conference call. I'll begin this morning by providing a high-level overview of our third quarter results. Following my comments, Julie Stephenson will discuss our underwriting results in more detail and Eric Martin will discuss our financial results. As indicated in yesterday's press release, I remain pleased with the progress we are making as we continue positioning UFG to deliver superior financial and operational performance. Our third quarter results show signs of improvement while we continue to execute a broad range of strategies to strengthen our company. Net income improved to $6.4 million in the third quarter of 2023 compared to a $23 million loss in the third quarter of 2022, while the combined ratio improved 9.6 points to 102.1% compared to 111.7% same quarter last year.
Net written premium was flat in the third quarter as growth in our core commercial and assumed reinsurance business was offset by targeted underwriting action on underperforming segments as we work to continuously improve the profile of the portfolio. In addition, net written premium growth was impacted by increased surety reinsurance reinstatement premiums. Average renewal premium increases in core commercial accelerated to 11% in the third quarter, outpacing loss cost trends. The acceleration was led by property rate increases of 17%. The underlying loss ratio was 60.5% in the third quarter which included approximately 2 points of impact from a small number of large losses and associated reinsurance reinstatement premiums in our surety business.
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