MetLife Inc. said that its second-quarter net income fell 72.6% from a year earlier despite an increase in operating earnings.
Net income was $617 million, or 80 cents a share, the New York company announced Monday.
It said that a $1.2 billion gain from real estate during the second quarter of 2005 was responsible for the significant difference between that quarter and this year's second quarter.
Increases in premiums and annuity deposits helped operating earnings, which exclude investment gains and losses, rise 12.9%, to $982 million, or $1.28 a share. The average estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call was $1.14 a share.
MetLife reported strong returns in each of its segments. Its institutional business' operating earnings rose 30.9%, to $453 million. Group life earnings rose 67%, retirement and savings earnings 6%, and variable and universal life earnings 10%.
