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Investing.com -- Sampo Oyj (HE:SAMPO) shares rose 2% Wednesday after the Finnish insurer reported second-quarter profit before tax of €526 million, exceeding the highest analyst estimate and beating consensus by 23%.
The earnings beat was largely driven by the company’s investment performance. Net financial result was 74% higher than expected, with net investment income beating forecasts by 21.2%. Finance expenses came in 22.5% lower than anticipated.
Operating earnings per share rose 16% year over year and came in 7.7% above consensus. The operating result beat expectations by 7.3%.
Sampo also announced a €200 million share buyback, a move that was not widely expected by analysts. Jefferies noted that the buyback represented a 100% beat over the median forecast.
Premium growth for the quarter was 8%, beating expectations by 1%. Gross written premiums, including brokerage, were ahead of consensus by 0.9%.
Net insurance revenue beat by 1.9%, supported by outperformance in several segments.
The Private U.K. segment led with a 5.9% beat, followed by Nordic Commercial at 0.2% and Other operations at 8.7%. Nordic Industrial missed forecasts by 6.4%.
Underwriting profits beat expectations by 2.9%, with strength in the Nordic Commercial and Nordic Industrial segments, which exceeded forecasts by 15.1% and 11.5%, respectively.
The Private U.K. segment also beat by 5.4%, while the Private Nordic segment missed by 4.7%.The combined ratio was 0.2 percentage points better than expected.
“Beyond the headline figures, however, we find ourselves most impressed by the Nordic underlying risk ratio, which improved by -40bps year-on-year. This represents a material pick-up from the -20bps improvement seen in 1Q 2025,” said analysts at Jefferies in a note.
The company’s Solvency II ratio stood at 174%, 1 percentage point below expectations, but in line when adjusted for the announced share buyback.