QBE's Shares Fall as Dividend Misses Consensus

By Alice Uribe

SYDNEY--QBE's shares fell early Thursday after it reported a fall in its first-half insurance operating results, and declared a dividend that missed consensus forecasts.

The general insurer's shares fell 2.4% to 15.23 Australian dollars (US$9.94) after earlier hitting a low of A$14.96. It is one of the worst performers on the ASX 200 so far this session.

QBE's net profit for the six months through June 30 rose to US$400 million from a restated US$48 million a year earlier. But its statutory insurance operating result of US$377 million was lower than the US$386 million reported in the prior period.

The insurer said this reflected "strong premium rate increases and targeted new business growth, offset by current and prior year catastrophe costs and the impact from the upfront net cost of the reserve transaction to reinsure certain prior accident year claims in North America and International."

Citi analysts said that QBE's dividend of 14 Australian cents a share, although 56% higher than the previous year, was slightly lower than consensus views.

QBE shares are up around 13% so far this year.

Write to Alice Uribe at alice.uribe@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 09, 2023 21:03 ET (01:03 GMT)

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