Selective Insurance Group announced financial results for the fourth quarter of 2025, with net profit of $152.9 million, an increase of 64% from $93.2 million in the same period in 2024.
Operating income improved during the quarter, rising 57% to $156.2 million, compared with $99.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, marking an efficient end to the company’s fiscal year.
The company’s underwriting performance also improved in Q4 2025, with the combined ratio falling to 93.8%, compared with a CoR of 98.5% reported in Q4 2024.
Even with catastrophe losses accounting for 1.7 percentage points of CoR (and no net casualty reserve development in the prior year), net underwriting income increased to $60.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2025, compared with $13.3 million in net underwriting income reported in the year-ago period.
Selective also reported net premiums written (NPW) of $1,129.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2025, an increase of 4% from $1,089.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. The increase was driven by pure price increases on renewals of 8.3%.
The company’s total revenue reached $1,364.9 million, up from $1,256.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Net investment income also increased 17% from the same period last year to $114 million after tax, and the annualized return on equity (ROE) for the quarter was 13.6 points.
“We are well-positioned to build on our recent momentum,” said John J. Marchioni, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. “We achieved a double-digit operating return on equity of 14.2% in 2025, reflecting our disciplined execution and the resiliency of our business model.”
“This exceeds our ten-year average operating ROE of 12.1%. Our performance drives book value per share growth of 18% in 2025, and we return $182 million to common shareholders through regular dividends and opportunistic stock repurchases.”
He added: “We executed on key strategic initiatives across the business, delivering outstanding growth and underwriting profitability across excess and surplus lines.
“In personal lines, we improved underwriting results as we continue to shift toward the mass affluent market. We are also executing on target rates and underwriting actions in standard commercial lines to deliver improved profitability going forward.”