CINF Cincinnati Financial Corporation

CINCINNATI, Oct. 24, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Cincinnati Financial Corporation (Nasdaq: CINF) today reported:

• Third-quarter 2024 net income of $820 million, or $5.20 per share, compared with a net loss of $99 million, or $0.63 per share, in the third quarter of 2023, after recognizing a $645 million third-quarter 2024 after-tax increase in the fair value of equity securities still held.
• Third-quarter 2024 non-GAAP operating income* of $224 million, or $1.42 per share, compared with $261 million, or $1.66 per share, in the third quarter of last year. The decrease of $37 million, or 14%, was primarily due to an $86 million increase in after-tax catastrophe losses.
• $919 million increase in third-quarter 2024 net income, compared with third-quarter 2023, primarily due to the after-tax net effect of a $956 million increase in net investment gains.
• $88.32 book value per share at September 30, 2024, up $11.26 since year-end.
• 17.8% value creation ratio for the first nine months of 2024, compared with 4.4% for the same period of 2023.

Financial Highlights

Insurance Operations Highlights

• 97.4% third-quarter 2024 property casualty combined ratio, increased from 94.4% for the third quarter of 2023.
• 17% growth in third-quarter net written premiums, including price increases, premium growth initiatives and a higher level of insured exposures.
• $406 million third-quarter 2024 property casualty new business written premiums, up 30%. Agencies appointed since the beginning of 2023 contributed $41 million or 10% of total new business written premiums.
• $20 million third-quarter 2024 life insurance subsidiary net income, down $5 million compared with the third quarter of 2023, and 4% growth in third-quarter 2024 term life insurance earned premiums.

Investment and Balance Sheet Highlights

• 15% or $33 million increase in third-quarter 2024 pretax investment income, including a 21% increase in bond interest income and a 1% decrease in stock portfolio dividends.
• Three-month increase of 5% in fair value of total investments at September 30, 2024, including a 10% increase for the bond portfolio and a 1% decrease for the stock portfolio.
• $5.379 billion parent company cash and marketable securities at September 30, 2024, up 11% from year-end 2023.

Financial Strength to Serve Policyholders
Stephen M. Spray, president and chief executive officer, commented: "We responded to 20 weather-related catastrophes across the U.S. in the third quarter, including Hurricane Helene, which swept through 11 states at the end of September. Our hearts go out to these communities and their residents who are trying to put lives, homes and businesses back together. Confident in our financial strength, our field claims associates can shine, responding in person, paying claims and delivering fair, fast and empathetic service.

"Those catastrophes added 13 points to our combined ratio for the quarter, just above our 5-year third-quarter average of 12.2%, bringing our combined ratio to 97.4%. As evidence of our ongoing focus on increasing product and geographic diversification, fine-tuning pricing precision and applying our underwriting expertise, our nine-month underwriting profit improved 53%, growing to $228 million compared to $149 million for the first nine months of 2023. Our combined ratio for the year through September 30 is 96.5% – comfortably within our target long-term average range of 92% to 98%.

"Investment income for the third quarter also grew, rising 15% to $258 million, driven by a 21% increase in bond interest income. Our investment professionals regularly trim or exit equity positions as they work to keep our investment portfolio optimized to balance near-term income generation with long-term book value growth potential. During the quarter we had $959 million in net sales of equity securities and $672 million in net purchases of fixed-maturity securities. This does not signal a change to our investment strategy. We will continue to hold both significant equity and bond portfolios."

Stability for Agents
"As we've visited with agents during the third quarter, they shared how they appreciate our responsiveness and our stability as we offer them options for new business opportunities even through the market turbulence of the past year. Our associates working with the independent agents who represent us are answering the call, crafting risk management solutions that showcase our expertise across every segment of our business. 

"In the first nine months of 2024, property casualty net written premiums topped $7 billion, up 14% compared with the first nine-months last year – a new record. We continued to write healthy amounts of both new and renewal business, with commercial lines growing 8%, personal lines at 30% and excess and surplus lines at 15%." 

Value for Shareholders
"At September 30, our book value per share again reached a record high, increasing 15% since December 31, 2023, to $88.32. Consolidated cash and total investments climbed to nearly $30 billion. Our value creation ratio, which considers the dividends we pay as well as our growth in book value, was 17.8% for the first nine months – ahead of our 10% to 13% average annual target for this measure."

• $336 million or 17% growth of third-quarter 2024 property casualty net written premiums, and nine-month growth of 14%, reflecting premium growth initiatives, price increases and a higher level of insured exposures. The contribution to third-quarter growth from Cincinnati Re^® and Cincinnati Global in total was 1 percentage point.
• $93 million or 30% increase in third-quarter 2024 new business premiums written by agencies. The growth included a $30 million increase in standard market property casualty production from agencies appointed since the beginning of 2023.
• 245 new agency appointments in the first nine months of 2024, including 82 that market only our personal lines products.
• 3.0 percentage-point third-quarter 2024 combined ratio increase, including an increase of 3.9 points from catastrophe losses.
• 1.0 percentage-point nine-month 2024 combined ratio improvement, including a decrease of 1.2 points from lower catastrophe losses.
• 3.2 percentage-point third-quarter 2024 benefit from favorable prior accident year reserve development of $71 million, compared with 2.7 points or $53 million for third-quarter 2023.
• 3.3 percentage-point nine-month 2024 benefit from favorable prior accident year reserve development, compared with 3.8 points for the first nine months of 2023.
• 1.1 percentage-point improvement, to 58.6%, for the nine-month 2024 ratio of current accident year losses and loss expenses before catastrophes, including an increase of 1.1 points for the portion estimated as reserves for claims incurred but not reported (IBNR) and a decrease of 2.2 points for the case incurred portion.
• 0.3 percentage-point increase in the underwriting expense ratio for the first nine months of 2024, compared with the same period of 2023, largely due to higher levels of profit-sharing commissions for agencies.

• $109 million or 11% growth in third-quarter 2024 commercial lines net written premiums, including higher agency renewal and new business written premiums. Eight percent growth in nine-month net written premiums.
• $73 million or 8% increase in third-quarter renewal written premiums, with commercial lines average renewal pricing increases in the high-single-digit percent range.
• $39 million or 26% increase in third-quarter 2024 new business premiums written by agencies, as we continue to carefully underwrite each policy in a highly competitive market.
• 2.2 percentage-point third-quarter 2024 combined ratio improvement, including a decrease of 1.3 points from lower catastrophe losses.
• 1.3 percentage-point nine-month 2024 combined ratio improvement, including a decrease of 2.5 points from lower catastrophe losses.
• 4.4 percentage-point third-quarter 2024 benefit from favorable prior accident year reserve development of $50 million, compared with 3.3 points or $34 million for third-quarter 2023.
• 3.5 percentage-point nine-month 2024 benefit from favorable prior accident year reserve development, compared with 4.0 points for the first nine months of 2023.

• $186 million or 29% growth in third-quarter 2024 personal lines net written premiums, including higher agency renewal written premiums that benefited from rate increases in the low-double-digit percent range. Cincinnati Private Client^SM third-quarter 2024 net written premiums from our agencies' high net worth clients grew 35%, to $479 million. Thirty percent growth in nine-month net written premiums.
• $43 million or 35% increase in third-quarter 2024 new business premiums written by agencies, with the increase approximately half each in our Private Client and in our middle-market personal lines.
• 10.4 percentage-point third-quarter 2024 combined ratio increase, including an increase of 12.7 points in the ratio for catastrophe losses.
• 2.3 percentage-point nine-month 2024 combined ratio improvement, including no change in the ratio effect from higher catastrophe losses.
• 0.1 percentage-point third-quarter 2024 unfavorable prior accident year reserve development of less than $1 million, compared with favorable development of 1.6 points or $8 million for third-quarter 2023.
• 1.4 percentage-point nine-month 2024 benefit from favorable prior accident year reserve development, compared with 3.6 points for the first nine months of 2023.

• $29 million or 23% growth in third-quarter 2024 excess and surplus lines net written premiums, including higher agency renewal written premiums that benefited from price increases averaging in the high-single-digit percent range. Fifteen percent growth in nine-month net written premiums.
• $11 million or 26% increase in third-quarter new business premiums written by agencies, as we continue to carefully underwrite each policy in a highly competitive market.
• 4.8 percentage-point third-quarter 2024 combined ratio increase, including an increase of 2.3 points in the ratio for catastrophe losses and unfavorable reserve development on prior accident year loss and loss expenses before catastrophe losses that was partially offset by improved current accident year loss and loss expenses before catastrophe losses.
• 3.4 percentage-point nine-month 2024 combined ratio increase, including an increase of 0.8 points in the ratio for catastrophe losses and unfavorable reserve development on prior accident year loss and loss expenses before catastrophe losses that was partially offset by improved current accident year results.
• $5 million of third-quarter 2024 unfavorable prior accident year reserve development, compared with less than $1 million of unfavorable development for third-quarter 2023.
• 1.0 percentage-point nine-month 2024 unfavorable prior accident year reserve development, compared with 3.5 points of favorable development for the first nine months of 2023.

• $4 million increase in third-quarter 2024 earned premiums, including a 4% increase for term life insurance, our largest life insurance product line.
• $2 million decrease in nine-month 2024 life insurance subsidiary net income, primarily due to increased investment losses from fixed-maturity securities partially offset by more favorable mortality experience.
• $138 million or 12% nine-month 2024 increase, to $1.262 billion, in GAAP shareholders' equity for the life insurance subsidiary, primarily from net income and a decrease in unrealized investment losses on fixed-maturity securities.

• $33 million or 15% rise in third-quarter 2024 pretax investment income, including a 21% increase in interest income from fixed-maturity securities and a 1% decrease in equity portfolio dividends.
• $1.255 billion third-quarter 2024 increase in pretax total investment gains, summarized in the table below. Changes in unrealized gains or losses reported in other comprehensive income, in addition to investment gains and losses reported in net income, are useful for evaluating total investment performance over time and are major components of changes in book value and the value creation ratio.

• $29.856 billion in consolidated cash and total investments at September 30, 2024, an increase of 14% from $26.264 billion at year-end 2023.
• $15.871 billion bond portfolio at September 30, 2024, with an average rating of A2/A. Fair value increased $1.462 billion during the third quarter of 2024, including $672 million in net purchases of fixed-maturity securities.
• $11.570 billion equity portfolio was 41.2% of total investments, including $7.536 billion in appreciated value before taxes at September 30, 2024. Third-quarter 2024 decrease in fair value of $64 million, including $959 million in net sales of equity securities.
• $6.53 third-quarter 2024 increase in book value per share, including an addition of $1.43 from net income before investment gains, $6.33 from investment portfolio net investment gains or changes in unrealized gains for fixed-maturity securities that were partially offset by $0.42 for other items and $0.81 from dividends declared to shareholders.
• Value creation ratio of 17.8% for the first nine months of 2024, including 5.8% from net income before investment gains, which includes underwriting and investment income, and 12.0% from investment portfolio net investment gains and changes in unrealized gains for fixed-maturity securities.

For additional information or to register for our conference call webcast, please visit cinfin.com/investors.

About Cincinnati Financial
Cincinnati Financial Corporation offers primarily business, home and auto insurance through The Cincinnati Insurance Company and its two standard market property casualty companies. The same local independent insurance agencies that market those policies may offer products of our other subsidiaries, including life insurance, fixed annuities and surplus lines property and casualty insurance. For additional information about the company, please visit cinfin.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This is our "Safe Harbor" statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Our business is subject to certain risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those suggested by the forward-looking statements in this report. Some of those risks and uncertainties are discussed in our 2023 Annual Report on Form 10-K, Item 1A, Risk Factors, Page 30.

Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to:

• Effects of any future pandemic, or the resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic, that could affect results for reasons such as:
  • Securities market disruption or volatility and related effects such as decreased economic activity and continued supply chain disruptions that affect our investment portfolio and book value
  • An unusually high level of claims in our insurance or reinsurance operations that increase litigation-related expenses
  • An unusually high level of insurance losses, including risk of court decisions extending business interruption insurance in commercial property coverage forms to cover claims for pure economic loss related to such pandemic
  • Decreased premium revenue and cash flow from disruption to our distribution channel of independent agents, consumer self-isolation, travel limitations, business restrictions and decreased economic activity
  • Inability of our workforce, agencies or vendors to perform necessary business functions
• Unusually high levels of catastrophe losses due to risk concentrations, changes in weather patterns (whether as a result of global climate change or otherwise), environmental events, war or political unrest, terrorism incidents, cyberattacks, civil unrest or other causes
• Increased frequency and/or severity of claims or development of claims that are unforeseen at the time of policy issuance, due to inflationary trends or other causes
• Inadequate estimates or assumptions, or reliance on third-party data used for critical accounting estimates
• Declines in overall stock market values negatively affecting our equity portfolio and book value
• Interest rate fluctuations or other factors that could significantly affect:
  • Our ability to generate growth in investment income
  • Values of our fixed-maturity investments, including accounts in which we hold bank-owned life insurance contract assets
  • Our traditional life policy reserves
• Domestic and global events, such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine, war in the Middle East and disruptions in the banking and financial services industry, resulting in insurance losses, capital market or credit market uncertainty, followed by prolonged periods of economic instability or recession, that lead to:
  • Significant or prolonged decline in the fair value of a particular security or group of securities and impairment of the asset(s)
  • Significant decline in investment income due to reduced or eliminated dividend payouts from a particular security or group of securities
  • Significant rise in losses from surety or director and officer policies written for financial institutions or other insured entities or in losses from policies written by Cincinnati Re or Cincinnati Global
• Our inability to manage Cincinnati Global or other subsidiaries to produce related business opportunities and growth prospects for our ongoing operations
• Recession, prolonged elevated inflation or other economic conditions resulting in lower demand for insurance products or increased payment delinquencies
• Ineffective information technology systems or discontinuing to develop and implement improvements in technology may impact our success and profitability
• Difficulties with technology or data security breaches, including cyberattacks, that could negatively affect our or our agents' ability to conduct business; disrupt our relationships with agents, policyholders and others; cause reputational damage, mitigation expenses and data loss and expose us to liability under federal and state laws
• Difficulties with our operations and technology that may negatively impact our ability to conduct business, including cloud-based data information storage, data security, cyberattacks, remote working capabilities, and/or outsourcing relationships and third-party operations and data security
• Disruption of the insurance market caused by technology innovations such as driverless cars that could decrease consumer demand for insurance products
• Delays, inadequate data developed internally or from third parties, or performance inadequacies from ongoing development and implementation of underwriting and pricing methods, including telematics and other usage-based insurance methods, or technology projects and enhancements expected to increase our pricing accuracy, underwriting profit and competitiveness
• Intense competition, and the impact of innovation, technological change and changing customer preferences on the insurance industry and the markets in which we operate, could harm our ability to maintain or increase our business volumes and profitability
• Changing consumer insurance-buying habits and consolidation of independent insurance agencies could alter our competitive advantages
• Inability to obtain adequate ceded reinsurance on acceptable terms, amount of reinsurance coverage purchased, financial strength of reinsurers and the potential for nonpayment or delay in payment by reinsurers
• Inability to defer policy acquisition costs for any business segment if pricing and loss trends would lead management to conclude that segment could not achieve sustainable profitability
• Inability of our subsidiaries to pay dividends consistent with current or past levels
• Events or conditions that could weaken or harm our relationships with our independent agencies and hamper opportunities to add new agencies, resulting in limitations on our opportunities for growth, such as:
  • Downgrades of our financial strength ratings
  • Concerns that doing business with us is too difficult
  • Perceptions that our level of service, particularly claims service, is no longer a distinguishing characteristic in the marketplace
  • Inability or unwillingness to nimbly develop and introduce coverage product updates and innovations that our competitors offer and consumers expect to find in the marketplace
• Actions of insurance departments, state attorneys general or other regulatory agencies, including a change to a federal system of regulation from a state-based system, that:
  • Impose new obligations on us that increase our expenses or change the assumptions underlying our critical accounting estimates
  • Place the insurance industry under greater regulatory scrutiny or result in new statutes, rules and regulations
  • Restrict our ability to exit or reduce writings of unprofitable coverages or lines of business
  • Add assessments for guaranty funds, other insurance‑related assessments or mandatory reinsurance arrangements; or that impair our ability to recover such assessments through future surcharges or other rate changes
  • Increase our provision for federal income taxes due to changes in tax law
  • Increase our other expenses
  • Limit our ability to set fair, adequate and reasonable rates
  • Place us at a disadvantage in the marketplace
  • Restrict our ability to execute our business model, including the way we compensate agents
• Adverse outcomes from litigation or administrative proceedings, including effects of social inflation and third-party litigation funding on the size of litigation awards
• Events or actions, including unauthorized intentional circumvention of controls, that reduce our future ability to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
• Unforeseen departure of certain executive officers or other key employees due to retirement, health or other causes that could interrupt progress toward important strategic goals or diminish the effectiveness of certain longstanding relationships with insurance agents and others
• Our inability, or the inability of our independent agents, to attract and retain personnel in a competitive labor market, impacting the customer experience and altering our competitive advantages
• Events, such as an epidemic, natural catastrophe or terrorism, that could hamper our ability to assemble our workforce at our headquarters location or work effectively in a remote environment

Further, our insurance businesses are subject to the effects of changing social, global, economic and regulatory environments. Public and regulatory initiatives have included efforts to adversely influence and restrict premium rates, restrict the ability to cancel policies, impose underwriting standards and expand overall regulation. We also are subject to public and regulatory initiatives that can affect the market value for our common stock, such as measures affecting corporate financial reporting and governance. The ultimate changes and eventual effects, if any, of these initiatives are uncertain.

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