NEW YORK (Reuters) - Prudential Financial Inc is the latest major insurer to warn its quarterly profits would miss forecasts, as the shares of rivals were pummelled on concern they would need to raise capital.

The second-largest US life insurer said yesterday that third-quarter profit would be cut sharply by losses on poorly performing annuity and investment products and a charge for a legal settlement.

That followed recent profit warnings at at US life and property insurer Hartford Financial Services Group Incand MetLife Inc, the largest life insurer in the US.

The latter sold new shares at a discount on Wednesday to bolster its capital, raising $2 billion, while Hartford earlier this week received a $2.5 billion capital injection from Allianz SE, Europe's biggest insurer.

"Insurers made big investments in mortgage-related securities and are also big holders of stocks and bonds in financial firms that have been wiped out or badly damaged by the credit crisis, such as Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual," said Alan Rambaldini, a life insurance analyst at Morningstar.