Everest Re Group saw its third quarter profits soar more than 297 percent amid low catastrophe activity — easily beating analysts’ expectations.The Bermuda reinsurer reported net income of $250.9 million, or $4.82 per share, compared to $63.1 million, or $1.16 per diluted common share, for the third quarter of 2011.After-tax operating income was $210.6 million, or $4.05 per diluted common share, easily beating the $3.74 expectation of analysts polled by Yahoo Finance.“Our record pace continues with another quarter of comprehensive income in excess of $400 million,” said Everest Re chairman and CEO, Joseph V. Taranto. “Through nine months, we have generated almost $1 billion of comprehensive income for our shareholders, resulting in growth in book value per share, adjusted for dividends, of 17.4%.”The company wrote more business, with gross written premiums up seven percent to $1.2 billion. Insurance premiums increased 42 percent, quarter over quarter, largely due to the acquisition of Heartland.Underwriting profitability was strong with the combined ratio — a reflection of the proportion of premium dollars spent on claims and expenses — improving to 87.2 percent from 95.6 percent in the same period of 2011.The loss ratio for the quarter was 59.8 percent — down from 69 percent in 2011.The attritional loss ratio for Q3 was 57.5 percent and the attritional combined ratio was 84.9 percent. This compared to 56.6 percent and 83.5 percent, respectively, for the same period last year.“It should be noted that the current year attritional combined ratio does include a $33.2 million underwriting loss in the quarter for crop business, $20.0 million on primary business and $13.2 million on reinsurance business,” the company stated. “Adjusting for this, the current year attritional combined ratio would be 81.6%.”Net investment income for the quarter was $152.0 million, down three percent compared to last year, primarily driven by declining reinvestment rates.Shareholders’ equity ended the quarter at $6.8 billion, up 12 percent since the end of last year.Everest has been busy returning capital to shareholders this year — repurchasing 229,100 of its common shares in the third quarter at an average price of $109.22 and a total cost of $25 million.The company has repurchased 2.6 million of its common shares this year at a total cost of $250 million.