By Michael Loney

April 28 - (The Insurer) – Cincinnati Financial has swung to a property-casualty underwriting loss of $298 million for the first quarter because of a $356 million increase in catastrophe losses.

The Cincinnati-based insurer reported a non-GAAP operating loss of $37 million for the first quarter, compared with operating income of $272 million in the same period of last year.

The $0.24 operating loss per share beat the consensus estimate of a $0.62 loss per share of 11 analysts as per MarketWatch, and compared with operating income per share of $1.72 in the prior-year period.

The $309 million decrease in operating income was primarily due to a $356 million increase in after-tax catastrophe losses.

The property-casualty underwriting loss was $298 million in the quarter, compared with a $131 million underwriting profit in Q1 2024.

The 113.3% Q1 2025 P&C combined ratio was up 19.7 points from 93.6% for the first quarter of last year.

Current accident year cat losses represented 26.8 points of the combined ratio in this year’s first quarter compared with 7.5 points in the prior-year period.

This year’s first quarter combined ratio had a 4.0 point benefit from favorable prior accident year reserve development of $91 million, compared with 5.0 points or $100 million for Q1 2024.

The current accident year combined ratio before cat losses improved 0.6 points to 90.5%, from 91.1% in Q1 2024.

This included an unfavorable 1.4 points for the net effect of $52 million for reinsurance treaty reinstatement premiums related to the January 2025 wildfires in southern California.

Net written premiums increased 11% to $2.50 billion in the first quarter from $2.25 billion, including price increases, premium growth initiatives and a higher level of insured exposures.

This included a 2 percentage point contribution from Cincinnati Re and Cincinnati Global Underwriting Ltd.

Commercial lines NWP increased 8% to $1.33 billion while the segment’s combined ratio improved 4.6 points to 91.9%. Commercial lines average renewal pricing increases were near the low end of the high-single-digit percent range.

Personal lines NWP increased 13% to $672 million, while the combined ratio deteriorated 57.4 points to 151.3%. Personal lines rate increases were in the low-double-digit percent range.

Excess and surplus lines insurance NWP grew 15% to $168 million while the combined ratio improved 3.6 points to 88.3%. E&S price increases averaged in the high-single-digit percent range.

Cincinnati Financial president and CEO Stephen Spray said: "We again recorded double-digit growth in new business written premiums and strong renewal pricing, increasing total property casualty net written premiums by 11%.

“We believe we can continue growing premiums at a healthy pace throughout 2025."

Spray had announced in February this year that the insurer expected between $450 million and $525 million of losses in Q1 from the California wildfires, net of reinsurance recoveries.