ZURICH (Bloomberg) ? Zurich Financial Services AG, Switzerland?s biggest insurer, said profit rose 57 percent in the fourth quarter, helped by lower-than-expected claims from Hurricane Wilma and a rebound in its property and casualty operations.

Net income increased to $958 million from $609 million in the same period a year ago, the Zurich-based company said today.

Profit beat analysts? estimates of $725 million. Zurich Financial also proposed raising its dividend to 7 Swiss francs from 4 francs.

Chief executive officer James Schiro said the year started on a positive note with a ?firming? in rates. Schiro wants to save $500 million this year and in 2007 with better risk management and ?tightened underwriting standards.?

In his first three years on the job, Schiro cut 5,000 posts and sold $1.3 billion of assets.

?Mr. Schiro has done a tremendous turnaround,? said Thomas Schudel, who helps manage a fund that invests about $228 million in European stocks at Bank Leu, a Credit Suisse Group unit. ?The strategy is very successful, we?ve seen this in the numbers.?

The shares climbed 6.1 percent to 314 francs in Zurich, their highest close since April 2002 and the biggest gainer today on the 31-member Bloomberg European Insurance Index.

The dividend news was ?quite positive, I expected less than 7 francs,? said Viktor Dammann, a Bank Vontobel analyst in Zurich.

The results ?clearly demonstrate the hard work invested in the turnaround, and it is paying off,? Schiro, 60, said yesterday.

He told reporters that the insurer would look at acquisitions but growing through a purchase wasn?t a key strategy.

The company said there was $1.3 billion in net claims from last year?s natural disasters, more than double that in 2004, including the hurricanes that struck the US Gulf Coast and caused widespread damage in the Caribbean.

Zurich Financial has reduced premiums to focus on business where it can make the most profit, Schiro said, adding the insurer wouldn?t write policies at a loss and is exiting or reducing some lines where the risk outweighs the return.

We?re ?on track to reduce total insured value in Florida by 25 percent by September of this year and by more than 40 percent in 2007? in the small-business line, Schiro said.

?When we look at the total exposure that we have in North America, and how our small-business book was built up in North America, our sense and our feeling is that we have too much risk in Florida,? he said.

For 2005, Zurich Financial today said profit rose 30 percent to $3.2 billion, or 27.11 francs a share, from $2.47 billion, or 20.83 francs, a year earlier.