Earnings

AIG earnings per share drop 47%, shares dip 3%

AIG earnings miss
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AIG earnings miss

Insurance titan American International Group on Monday posted quarterly results that missed analysts' estimates, though it highlighted progress in cost-cutting and restructuring.

AIG reported first-quarter adjusted earnings of 65 cents per share, down from earnings of $1.22 per share in the year-earlier period. After-tax operating income dropped 54 percent to $773 million from $1.69 billion.

The company did not immediately disclose its quarterly sales. AIG said "the negative impact of market volatility on investments" hit its results during the quarter.

Wall Street expected AIG to report first-quarter earnings of $1 per share on $13.57 billion in revenue, according to a Thomson Reuters consensus estimate.

The company's shares fell about 3 percent in after-hours trading Monday.

Peter Hancock, chief executive officer of American International Group, speaks during an interview on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

AIG has looked to streamline operations and boost its profitability amid pressure from activist shareholders John Paulson and Carl Icahn. For the first quarter, general operating expenses fell 5 percent from the prior-year period, excluding foreign exchange rate changes.

"Although our first-quarter results were impacted by market volatility on investments, the underlying operating results demonstrate progress on our strategic objectives," said Peter Hancock, AIG president and chief executive officer, in a statement.

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AIG posted a net loss of $183 million for the quarter, compared with net income of $2.5 billion in the previous year.

On a pretax basis, operating income for its commercial insurance unit fell 39 percent to $889 million. Operating income for consumer insurance, meanwhile, dropped 17 percent to $788 million.

For the property casualty and retirement segments, pretax operating income slid 38 and 42 percent, respectively.

The disappointing results come as AIG faces the possibility of having to set aside more capital as regulators worry about financial firms deemed "too big to fail."

Hancock said in March that a judge's ruling that MetLife was not "too big to fail" opened up an opportunity for AIG to seek an exemption from the designation, but said he was "reserving judgment."

AIG shares have dropped 8 percent this year.

Reuters contributed to this report.