Chubb Corp. (NYSE: CB) reported Q1 EPS of $2.68, $0.11 better than the analyst estimate of $2.57.

Evan G. Greenberg, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Chubb Limited, commented: "Chubb had a very good first quarter that demonstrated the underlying health and strength of our company as we entered this period of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Core operating income per share of $2.68 was up 5.5% from prior year, and our underwriting results were highlighted by a P&C combined ratio of 89.1%. We grew P&C premiums globally 9.3% in constant dollars as we continued to benefit from improved rate to exposure, particularly in our commercial P&C business – a positive and necessary trend that continued into April.

"The coronavirus is delivering a severe blow to the global economy. How long and how deep is unknown. It will have a major impact on the global insurance industry in terms of both losses and revenue. For Chubb, we expect our premium growth momentum to be impacted for a period as insurance exposures in important areas shrink. This will be an earnings event for our company; our balance sheet and liquidity remain strong.

"Insurance has an important role to play in society and in the economy, and at Chubb we are doing our job to support our customers, employees and business partners, all of whom rely on us. We are operating day to day at a very high level globally and I am confident Chubb will weather this difficult time and emerge stronger.

"As the U.S. gains better control over the virus and we look forward to reopening the economy, the ability to test, digitally trace and isolate is fundamental to suppressing the spread of the virus while returning to more normal economic and social activity. It is also important at this time that we do not add unnecessarily to the great uncertainty we are already experiencing. To that end, we should prevent self-inflicted harm from government attempts to force insurers to retroactively pay uncovered business interruption claims, which is simply unconstitutional."

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Chubb Corp. (CB) click here.