Net income was $314 million, or 65 cents a share, compared with a loss of $46 million, or 13 cents, a year earlier, the Hartford, Connecticut-based company said Monday in a statement distributed by Business Wire. Operating profit, which excludes some investment results, was 94 cents a share, beating the average estimate of 90 cents in a Bloomberg survey of 17 analysts.

Chief Executive Officer Liam McGee, 59, has divested a life insurer and a broker-dealer to concentrate on coverage for businesses, homes and autos. He’s used hedges in Japan and a deal with Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. to limit risks on retirement contracts sold in prior periods.

“The Japan hedging is by far the biggest risk-management action that they’ve taken,” Vincent DeAugustino, an analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, said in an interview before results were announced. “Going forward, it’s, to a large degree, going to be the commercial lines business and the personal lines business,” that generate profits.

Hartford shares advanced 1.9 percent to $32.78 at 4:27 p.m. in extended trading, after falling 3.2 percent during the regular session. The shares have risen 28 percent in the past 12 months, beating the 15 percent gain of the Standard & Poor’s 500 index.

Book Value

Book value, a measure of assets minus liabilities, rose to $39.14 a share on Dec. 31 from $38.87 three months earlier.

Hartford authorized buybacks of as much as $2 billion this year and next. It repurchased $225 million of stock in the last three months of 2013, bringing the full-year figure to $633 million including warrants.

Insurers benefited last year from lower natural disaster costs than 2012 when superstorm Sandy struck. U.S. insurers had $12.8 billion in claims from catastrophes in 2013, less than half the average from 2000 to 2012, according to Munich Re, the world’s largest reinsurer.

Hartford recorded $335 million in catastrophe losses in 2012’s fourth quarter. The figure was $28 million in the three months ended Dec. 31.