After years spent cleaning up the mess left by its 2008 collapse,
The global insurance giant reported another strong quarter Thursday, soaring past Wall Street's consensus estimate with after-tax operating income of $1.34 per share, or $2 billion. Net income was $1.49 per share or $2.2 billion.
Those figures were all down from a year ago, but annual comparisons at AIG have been a challenge for years as the company has sold billions in assets to shore up capital and get out from under a massive federal bailout. The first quarter of 2012, for instance, would have been a loss but for pre-tax income of $3.3 billion from investments in
Conditions are certainly looking clearer these days for Chief Executive Robert Benmosche and his team though. The company has finally extricated itself from an uneasy relationship with Uncle Sam as a shareholder, and has hinted at restarting dividend payments at some point in the not-too-distant future.
Benmosche said the Q1 results "reflect the depth of our global operations, the market’s demand for the products and services we offer, and the strong performance of our investment portfolio," in Thursday's release, and that the insurer's priority remains to "improve operating fundamentals and reduce costs."
The market liked what it heard, as AIG shares rallied 3% after the earnings report Thursday afternoon.