Insurer Travelers's Profit Rises 17% in 1Q

Travelers (NYSE:TRV) posted a record quarterly profit of $1.05 billion, or $2.95 per share.  This beat analyst expectations and is a 17% rise from the same period last year.

The insurance company, which is a Dow component, posted $6.3 billion in revenue, up 6% from 2013. The increase was largely due to higher investment income and underwriting gains.

Travelers had a record quarter for net written premiums at $5.9 billion, resulting from its acquisition of Dominion of Canada, which was acquired in November 2013. Travelers also had solid performance in the management liability and surety businesses.

“Our performance this quarter is a very encouraging start to the year. Our very deep agent, broker and customer relationships, highly segmented pricing strategies and expense discipline continued to deliver strong and improving underwriting results,” said CEO Jay Fishman, in a statement.

The company's board approved a 10% increase in the quarterly dividend at 55 cents per share. Travelers has increased dividends for ten consecutive years.

Travelers is one of the largest U.S. property-casualty insurers. The company has a commercial business and also sells car and home insurance to individuals.

The stock price has remained flat Tuesday, trading just above $86 per share.