Unum posts lower 1st-quarter earnings

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Unum Group (UNM.N) said on Wednesday that net income fell in the first quarter, hurt by investment losses.

Chattanooga, Tennessee-based Unum, the largest disability insurer in the United States and the United Kingdom, said net earnings were $163.1 million, or 46 cents a share, down 8.5 percent from $178.3 million, or 51 cents a share, in the year- earlier quarter.

Earnings from continuing operations before net realized investment losses, which analysts use to measure performance, were $207.8 million, or 59 cents a share, compared with $174.6 million, or 50 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter.

Analysts, on average, had expected earnings of 57 cents a share, according to Reuters Estimates.

Unum said business in both the United States and the UK rose during the period.

The insurer raised its outlook for full year 2008 operating earnings, which excludes investment results, to $2.37 to $2.42 a share.

On that basis, analysts on average expected Unum to earn $2.39 a share in 2008, according to Reuters Estimates.

Unum said its net realized investment loss in the period was $68.5 million, compared with a net realized investment loss of $3.7 million in the first quarter of 2007.

(Reporting by Lilla Zuill; Editing by Tim Dobbyn/Andre Grenon)