XL Capital’s (XL) third- quarter earnings of 89 cents per share were ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 76 cents per share. This compares to earnings of 39 cents per share in the prior year quarter. However on a GAAP basis the company reported a loss of 3 cents per share, versus a loss of $6.04 in the prior year period. Net loss came in at $11.4 million compared to a net loss of $1,649.0 million in the prior year quarter. The significant improvement in net loss is primarily due to a charge of $1.4 billion in the prior year quarter related to the transaction closed during Aug 2008 with Syncora Holdings Ltd. Net written premiums fell 4.4% year-over-year to $1.3 billion, while gross written premiums dropped 15.3% to $1.7 billion. Premium volumes have been negatively impacted by the global economic conditions, reduction in mergers ...

XL Capital Group’s (XL) financial strength rating (FSR) of “A" (Excellent) and issuer credit ratings (ICR) of “a" were reaffirmed today by the rating agency A.M. Best. The outlook for all ratings is “stable". The rating reaffirmation is followed by XL’s efforts to restructure its investment portfolio by settling with Syncora Holdings. The company had a disappointing run last year, dragged down by structured-finance losses recorded by Syncora Capital, a bond insurer, of which it was the majority owner. Last October, XL severed its ties with Syncora, a big step in setting a track to recovery. On a year-to-date basis, XL has reduced its exposure to more volatile asset classes by $3.5 billion. XL also implemented expense reduction initiatives in the second half of 2008. It has been streamlining processes across all geographic locations, with a primary emphasis on corporate functions. The company has also ...

Foreign exchange losses, coupled with a decline in net investment income, shortened XL Capital's (XL) second-quarter earnings. On Jul 28 the company reported results that missed our expectations. Earnings came in at $79.9 million, or $0.23 per share, versus $1.33 last year.

Excluding items, reported earnings were $162.6 million, or $0.47 per share, in comparison to $266.2 million, or $1.49, in the prior-year period. On a per share basis, earnings shrank by 68%. Earnings fell short of the Street's expectation of $0.62 per share, whereas we had expected earnings of $0.65 per share.

Revenues fell 18.8% year over year to $1.73 billion, versus the $1.71 billion consensus. We had expected revenues of $1.6 billion.

Earnings were shortened because of a foreign exchange loss of $145.2 million that was due to deteriorating dollar value, coupled by a decline in net investment income.

Net written premiums fell 21% year over year to $1.08 billion,

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Credit Suisse is upgrading span style="font-weight: bold;"XL Capital (NYSE:XL)/span to Outperform from Neutral while raising target to $18 (prev. $13).br /div style="text-align: justify;"br /Analyst notes they are upgrading XL for 2 reasons:br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"- 1. Improving fixed income markets should lead to/spanspan style="font-weight: bold;" a strengthening capital position./span CSFB believes it is unlikely that the company will raise capital even if fixed income markets deteriorate significantly.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"- 2. Firm believes that XL's Franchise is stabilizing with lower top line declines going forward and underwriters continuing to maintain pricing discipline./span In their view, a stronger capital position and stabilization in the franchise could lead to the removal of the negative ratings outlook by rating agencies in 6-12 months which should lead to an improvement in valuation from distressed levels as investors focus more on book value growth rather than the company's survival. As fixed income markets ...

The calendar had caused me to anticipate volatility this week. Goldman Sachs (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), FedEx (FDX) and Oracle (ORCL) will release quarterly results. The Fed will meet on Tuesday. (No change in rates is expected, but given the Lehman situation, there is a small possibility that a quarter-point cut could be announced.) Friday is a quadruple-witching day, meaning the simultaneous expiration of options and futures contracts. Now, the markets will also have to contend with the aftermath of Hurricane Ike and the fallout from Lehman Brothers. As former Houstonians, my wife and I spent a lot of time this weekend on the phone with friends and family. At this point, we have no idea what condition my wife’s parent’s house is in. (They live in Houston’s southern suburbs.) We do know that there has been

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XL Capital, LtdÂ’s (XL) 2Q08 results significantly missed expectations. There was some noise in the quarter, and we expect some more of it in 3Q08.

To maintain its strong capital position, the company issued $2.5 billion of equity capital and reduced dividend by 50%. The initiatives taken to resolve SCA issues will cost the company a charge of $1.4-1.5 billion in the next quarter. Along with this, a charge of $50-60 million is also expected, as a result of XLÂ’s expense reduction drive. Decreasing premium rates across insurance as well as reinsurance segment along with ratings downgrade continue to bother us.

Given all these factors we expect earnings to remain volatile for the rest of the year. As such, we decide to keep the shares of the company on Hold for now. Based on 2Q08 results and company guidance, we have lowered our FY08 and 2009 earnings expectations to

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I run my fundamental stock screener searching stocks with the highest dividend yield. Report list only companies included in index S&P 500. Not surprisingly except one (GM) there are only financials and banks in top ten. The one of the highest yield was for financials compared to other sectors already before credit turmoils. And after deep fall we can see almost incredible yield over 30% for MBI.I list below one more table. Just to show top 10 high dividend stocks purged from financials.Top yielding stocks in S&P 500 Symbol Company Name Industry Yield (MBI) MBIA Ord ...