NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Ace Ltd., the Zurich-based insurer with operations in more than 50 countries, said first-quarter profit rose 33 percent as sales improved.

Net income climbed to $755 million, or $2.22 a share, from $567 million, or $1.69, in the year-earlier period, the insurer said yesterday in a statement. Income excluding some investment results was $1.70 a share, beating the $1.65 average estimate of 19 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Ace, which remained profitable through the financial crisis, is competing with Travelers Cos. and Chubb Corp. for a greater portion of the US insurance market. Policy sales rose to $3.6 billion from $3.4 billion in the same period in 2009, driven by Ace's life insurance and global reinsurance divisions.

"They've had a very solid performance across most areas over the past year," Mark Dwelle, an insurance analyst with RBC Capital Markets, said in an interview before the results. "They continue to be very well-positioned globally to pursue any lines of business that they find to be attractive, really anywhere in the world. It's certainly an advantage over some of their domestic-only kind of peers."

Ace rose $1.25, or 2.4 percent, to $53.65 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock climbed 3.8 percent in the first quarter.

Chief executive officer Evan Greenberg may seek to expand the company through acquisitions after boosting capital by avoiding share buybacks and as improved markets bolster investments.

Book value, a measure of assets minus liabilities, climbed to $60.94 a share from $58.44 in the fourth quarter of 2009. Ace reported book value of $43.82 a share in the first quarter last year.

Moody's Investors Service said earlier this month that Ace has a "solid competitive position in its principal business segments".

The insurer forecast in January that operating profit for 2010 would be $6.25 to $6.75 a share, excluding changes in the estimated cost of claims it incurred in past quarters. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg estimate $7.16 on average.