HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) _ The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. (HIG) on Thursday reported third-quarter profit of $459 million.

On a per-share basis, the Hartford, Connecticut-based company said it had profit of $1.26. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were $1.46 per share.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of five analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 88 cents per share.

The insurance and financial services company posted revenue of $5.17 billion in the period. Its adjusted revenue was $3.42 billion.

The Hartford shares have decreased 36% since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has climbed 2.5%. In the final minutes of trading on Thursday, shares hit $38.70, a decline of 32% in the last 12 months.

This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on HIG at https://www.zacks.com/ap/HIG

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