On August 3, Loews Corporation (NYSE:L) reported second-quarter net income of $444 million, or $2.16 per share, up from $391 million, or $1.87 per share, in the same quarter of 2025. Book value per share climbed to $93.52 as of June 30, from $90.71 at the end of 2025. Loews runs as a holding company built on a handful of very different businesses: an insurer, a pipeline operator, and a hotel group, and this quarter three of those four lines posted higher profit than a year ago. The exception is worth watching, because it sits inside the company’s largest and most important unit.
Three Engines All Firing
Start with that largest unit. CNA Financial (NYSE:CNA) is Loews’ insurance subsidiary and its biggest single contributor to earnings, and it delivered net income attributable to Loews of $294 million this quarter, up from $274 million a year earlier, helped by higher net investment income and lower investment losses. Outside of insurance, Boardwalk Pipelines, which moves natural gas for utilities and industrial customers, added $100 million in net income, up from $88 million, with EBITDA rising to $279 million from $274 million on higher gas transportation contracting rates, newly completed growth projects, and stronger product sales.
Loews Hotels posted the sharpest swing of the three, and for a clear reason: its properties are seeing more guests paying more per night. Net income jumped 71% to $48 million from $28 million, and adjusted EBITDA rose 26% to $137 million from $109 million, driven largely by higher room rates and occupancy at the Universal Orlando Resort properties and the recently renovated Miami Beach hotel.
That cash flow gave the parent company room to act on its balance sheet too. Loews held $4.4 billion in cash and investments against just $1.8 billion in debt as of June 30, and used some of that capital to repurchase 1.4 million shares for $146 million during the quarter, trimming shares outstanding to 204.4 million from 206.0 million at the end of 2025.
Underwriting Margins Losing Ground
The one segment that did not follow this pattern is the same one that drives most of Loews’ earnings. Inside CNA, core income, which strips out investment swings to show how the underlying insurance business is performing, actually fell to $324 million from $335 million. The reason shows up in CNA’s combined ratio, a measure of how much an insurer pays out in claims and expenses for every dollar of premium it collects. That ratio widened by 2.4 points to 96.5% from 94.1%, and the underlying version of it, which excludes one-time items, rose to 94.2% from 91.7%.
Digging further, the underlying loss ratio climbed to 64.1%, up 2.6 points from a year earlier, which the company tied to higher loss cost trends and rates that came in lower than expected in certain lines over recent quarters. This is not a one-quarter blip either. Over six months, the combined ratio increased 3.1 points to 99.4% from 96.3%, weighed down by both that underwriting slippage and unfavorable development on prior-year loss reserves. The corporate segment added its own drag over the first half of the year too, with results declining mainly because of higher interest expense tied to a recent debt refinancing.
None of this shows up yet in the headline profit number, since stronger results at Boardwalk and the hotels more than offset it. But underwriting is the core of what an insurer actually sells, and a ratio moving the wrong direction for two straight comparison periods is not something a single strong quarter elsewhere can paper over indefinitely.
Steady Hands, Muted Chatter
The market, so far, looks unmoved by either side of that story. Hedge fund positioning in Loews held flat at 39 funds holding the stock in both the most recent quarter and the one before it, showing neither a rush in nor a rush out. Short interest sits at just 2.49% of the float, a level that points to very little organized betting against the stock.
A Profit Story With A Catch
Loews closed the quarter with more cash on hand than a year earlier, a fatter book value, and a smaller share count after buybacks, all signs of a company in good shape. Yet that strength came largely from Boardwalk and the hotel business, while CNA, the unit that normally carries the earnings, saw its underwriting results move backward for a second straight comparison period. Whether this quarter’s mix keeps working depends on which trend proves more durable: Boardwalk’s contracting gains and the hotel portfolio’s occupancy strength, or CNA’s rising loss costs and thinning rate.
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