CINF Cincinnati Financial Corporation
$181.41
Cincinnati Financial Corporation Q3 F2026 Earnings Call Transcript
AI Conference Call Analysis
Sign in or subscribe to read.Julianne
Conference Call Operator
Good morning and welcome to the Cincinnati Financial Corporation Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. All participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's remarks, we will conduct a question and answer session. To ask a question at this time, you will need to press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Andy Gothard, Investor Relations Officer. Thank you. Please go ahead.
Andy Gothard
Investor Relations Officer
Good morning. and thank you for joining us for our third quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Late yesterday, we issued the news release on our results along with our supplemental financial package, including our quarter end investment portfolio. To find copies of any of these documents, please visit our investor website, investors.sinpin.com. The shortest route to the information is the quarterly results section near the middle of the investor overview page. On this call, you'll first hear from President and Chief Executive Officer, Steve Spray, and then from Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Mike Sewell. After their prepared remarks, investors participating on the call may ask questions. At that time, some responses may be made by others in the room with us, including Executive Chairman Steve Johnston, Chief Investment Officer Steve Soloria and Cincinnati Insurance's Chief Claims Officer Mark Shambo and Senior Vice President of Corporate Finance Andy Schnell. Please note that some of the matters to be discussed today are forward looking. These forward-looking statements involve certain risks and uncertainties. With respect to these risks and uncertainties, we direct your attention to our news release and to our various filings with the SEC. Also, a reconciliation of non-GAAP measures was provided with the news release. Statutory accounting data is prepared in accordance with statutory accounting rules and therefore is not reconciled to GAAP. Now, I'll turn the call over to Steve.
Steve Spray
President and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, and thank you for joining us today to hear more about our results. We had another quarter of strong operating performance that reinforces our confidence in the long-term direction of our business. Our insurance operations produced excellent underwriting results, even as the property casualty combined ratio increased from last year's exceptional level. Net income of $459 million for the third quarter of 2026 included recognition of less than $1 million on an after-tax basis for the increase in fair value of equity securities still held. Non-GAAP operating income was $443 million for the quarter, down only $6 million from a year ago, despite catastrophe losses that were $146 million higher on an after-tax basis. The 90.9% third quarter 2026 property casualty combined ratio increased by 2.7 percentage points compared with third quarter last year, including an increase of 7.0 points for catastrophe losses. Our current accident year combined ratio before catastrophe losses for the first nine months of 2026 was 86.5%, improving slightly compared with the 86.7% reported through the first nine months of 2025. Moving to premium growth, our consolidated property casualty net written premiums grew 2% for the quarter. Premium growth moderated as expected, reflecting our commitment to pricing discipline, careful risk selection, and segmentation on a policy by policy basis. Estimated average renewal price increases for most lines of business during the third quarter were lower than the second quarter of 2026, but still at levels we believe were healthy. Commercial lines and excess and surplus lines averaged increases in the low single-digit percentage range. Our personal line segment included homeowner increases in the high single-digit percentage range and personal auto increases in the mid single-digit range. Although market conditions continue to be challenging, we remain confident that our diverse product portfolio, exceptional service, and strong relationships with independent insurance agents provide a solid foundation for long-term success. Next, I'll highlight third quarter performance by insurance segment compared with a year ago. The commercial lines combined ratio was 92.8%, an increase of 1.7 percentage points, including 4.3 points from higher catastrophe losses. Net written premiums grew less than 1%. Personal lines grew net written premiums 1%. Impacted by lower new business premiums that reflect continued softening market conditions. The combined ratio for purse lines was 90.3%, just 2.1 percentage points higher than last year, despite an increase of 12.1 points from higher catastrophe losses. Excess and surplus lines grew net written premiums 5% and produced another excellent combined ratio of 89.4%. Cincinnati RE and Cincinnati Global both contributed meaningfully to premium growth and continue to provide diversification benefits for our insurance operations. Cincinnati RE's third quarter 2026 net written premiums increased by 34%. Its combined ratio was 94.8%. Cincinnati Global grew 13% while maintaining an impressive 70.7% combined ratio. Our life insurance subsidiary had another solid quarter, including 11% net income growth. In addition, term life insurance earned premiums grew 2%. Now, I'll give a summary of our primary measure of long-term financial performance, the value creation ratio. Our VCR was negative 2.1% for the third quarter of 2026. Net income before investment gains or losses for the quarter contributed 2.7%, or overall valuation of our investment portfolio and other items contributed negative 4.8%. Before I hand the call to Mike, I wanted to give you an update on our ongoing investments in data, technology, and artificial intelligence. We continue to prioritize applications of generative and agentic AI that can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our associates. We want to optimize their efforts, allowing them to add more value to our business, deepening relationships, sharing expertise, and focusing their energy on the most complex insurance and technology decisions. I'll give you two examples of AI applications that are in production today that we believe have already and will continue to produce meaningful benefits across the organization. Many other use cases exist in varying stages of development from design all the way through production. First, our AI center of excellence is harnessing cloud provider large language models to create reusable internal capabilities that can be adapted for additional business areas where the use case and supporting evidence are strong. So far, we've developed seven proprietary intelligent assistants for associates to use in areas such as underwriting, claims, and loss control. These assistants, along with other tools we've deployed, reduce the time spent on information-intensive tasks such as summarizing underwriting and claims files and understanding internal appetite and risk guidance. We are applying automation and AI-enabled capabilities within selected new business and commercial service workflows. More specifically, we are using these capabilities to process new business submissions received by email, enabling us to accelerate quote delivery by more than 30% across our commercial lines and excess and surplus lines businesses. Our approach is disciplined, We establish a baseline, evaluate the operating results, ensure we have strong governance and controls, and then expand the capability only where the evidence supports it. Because our agents tell us that speed to quote is a key variable as we compete for business, we believe reducing the average time to quote will positively support our continued profitable growth. Now I'll turn it over to Chief Financial Officer Mike Sewell for additional insights regarding our financial performance.
Mike Sewell
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, Steve, and thanks to all of you for joining us today. Investment income growth of 10% in the third quarter of 26 contributed nicely to our operating results, driven by strong cash flow and insurance operations from insurance operations. Bond interest income grew 11% and the net purchases of fixed maturity securities totaled $1.1 billion for the quarter and $2 billion for the first nine months of the year. The third quarter pre-tax average yield of 5.04% for the fixed maturity portfolio was down six basis points compared with last year. The average pre-tax yield for the total purchased taxable and tax-exempt bonds during the third quarter of this year was 5.93%. Dividend income was down 4% for the quarter. Net sales of equity securities totaled $52 million for the quarter and $784 million on a year-to-date basis. Valuation changes in aggregate for the third quarter were slightly favorable for our equity portfolio and unfavorable due to rising interest rates for our bond portfolio. Before tax effects, the net gain was $6 million for the equity portfolio, while the net loss was approximately $1.2 billion for the bond portfolio. At the end of the third quarter, the total investment portfolio net appreciated value was approximately $7.4 billion. The equity portfolio was in a net gain position of $8.9 billion, while the fixed maturity portfolio was in a net loss position of $1.5 billion. Cash flow continued to benefit investment income growth. Cash flow from operating activities for the first nine months of 2026 was $2.1 billion, a decrease of less than 1% from a year ago. Moving to expense management, our goal is to balance making strategic investments in our business while also controlling expenses. The third quarter 2026 property casualty underwriting expense ratio increased by 0.4 percentage points due primarily to timing of recognition of certain expenses. Regarding loss reserves, our approach remains consistent and aims in net amounts in the upper half of the actuarially estimated range of net loss and loss expense reserves. As we do each quarter, we consider new information such as paid losses and case reserves. Then we updated estimated ultimate losses and loss expenses by accident year and line of business. For the first nine months of 2026, our net addition to property casualty loss loss expense reserves was $1.26 billion, including $997 million for the IBNR portion. During the third quarter, we experienced $94 million of property casualty net favorable reserve development on prior accident years that benefited the combined ratio by 3.6 percentage points. For the commercial casualty line of business, there was no material reserve development for any prior accident year during the quarter. On an all-lines basis by accident year, Net favorable reserve development for the first nine months of 2026 included favorable $203 million for 25, favorable $70 million for 24, and an unfavorable $56 million in aggregate for accident years prior to 24. I'll conclude my comments with third quarter capital management highlights. We paid $142 million in dividends to shareholders. During the quarter, we repurchased an immaterial number of shares. We believe our strong balance sheet continues to provide substantial flexibility and supports our financial strength. Parent company cash and marketable securities at quarter end was $6.1 billion. Debt to total capital remained under 10%. Year-to-date VCR was 5.8%. And our quarter end book value was $105.42 per share, with $16 billion of GAAP consolidated shareholders' equity, providing plenty of capacity for the profitability growth of our insurance operations. Now, I'll turn the call back over to Steve.
Steve Spray
President and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Mike. Before we open the call for questions, I'd like to take a moment to thank and recognize Chief Claims Officer Mark Shambo for his nearly 40 years of dedication to Cincinnati insurance, our agents, and our policyholders. As most of you know, this is Mark's final earnings call before his January retirement. Since Mark took the reins of our claims operations, we faced some of the worst catastrophe events in our company's history, including Winter Storm Elliot, Hurricane Helene, and the California wildfires. Mark has handled it all with unshakable confidence. He has continued to lead with empathy, nurturing our belief in responding person to person as we've made bad days better for countless families and businesses in their time of crisis. We are grateful for his contributions and we wish him the best in this next chapter of life. As a reminder, with Mark, Mike, and me today are Steve Johnston, Steve Soloria, and Andy Schnell. Julianne, please open the call for questions.
Julianne
Conference Call Operator
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. Our first question today comes from Michael Phillips from Oppenheimer. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Michael Phillips
Analyst, Oppenheimer
Thank you.
Gregory Peters
Analyst, Raymond James
Good morning, everybody.
Michael Phillips
Analyst, Oppenheimer
Let me start with the commercial casualty again for the first question. Your last pick is kind of in line with the first half of the year and maybe kind of where you thought it would be at the end of 2025. I guess I just want to see, and you talked about, you know, conservative prudence for potential severity rises. Have you seen anything in claims activity that would support that yet or are you still keeping it elevated just in case of and maybe just being conservative?
Steve Spray
President and Chief Executive Officer
Well, you know, I wouldn't call it conservative, Mike. I'd call it prudent. You know, we take a consistent, we've talked about this a lot, we take a consistent process, we've got a consistent group, and it is management's best estimate of ultimate losses, obviously. I think, I have not seen, I don't think we've seen anything out there on the casualty front that would be a reversal from, you know, a lot of the Legal system abuse, the challenges that we face, third-party litigation funding, just increased activity there. I think there's enough uncertainty, enough variability. We're just being prudent. As you've noticed, that accident year pick through nine months has stayed pretty consistent throughout the year and is right there with the pick that we had at the end of 2025.
Michael Phillips
Analyst, Oppenheimer
Okay, Steve, thank you. I may be staying with commercial lines for a second on the expense ratio side. You've talked about investments, and I feel like we're going to continue, I guess, with all your AI enhancements, and Mike gave some examples in commercial lines in his opening comments. I guess, given top line pressure is probably going to last through at least the next year, is there a ceiling you think we could expect on the expense ratio commercial lines, or just how do you think about the pressure there?
Mike Sewell
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
You know, we've worked extremely hard. Great question. We've worked extremely hard to get the expense ratio under a 30. And I think we're going to continue to do that. That's a great observation as the top line is going to be growing, we're still going to do everything we can to control expenses, we've got to invest in the business, etc. And we will be working very diligently to keep it Under the 30%.
Michael Phillips
Analyst, Oppenheimer
Okay, Mike, thank you.
Unknown
Conference Call Participant
Congrats, everybody. Appreciate it.
Mike Sewell
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Great. Thanks for the question.
Julianne
Conference Call Operator
Our next question comes from Gregory Peters from Raymond James. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Gregory Peters
Analyst, Raymond James
Well, good morning. So I'm going to focus on the just the outlook for growth, you know, lasering in or focusing in on the commercial lines piece. You know, so just trying to see when we look forward, where you think the growth is going to come from? Is it is it exposure growth of existing clients? Is it do you think new business is going to accelerate or You know, maybe you can also come at it from just where are you seeing the most competition in commercial lines and where are the areas that you might be concerned about?
Steve Spray
President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, thanks, Greg. You know, we're still seeing the most pressure, I'd say, in commercial lines, the larger the premium. Okay, so small to, I'd say, small to midsize, the way we would define it, business. It's competitive out there, but it still seems rational. Where we're seeing the most aggressive or the most difficulty on the growth side would be in that larger account space. No real guidance going forward for you, Greg. One thing I would, maybe if you wouldn't mind, if I could just maybe expand on it a little bit. You know, it's obvious the industry that they're slowing growth, the slowing growth for us as well. But I, I'd like to kind of put it in, in context, you know, the new business dollars on an absolute basis for us still remain very strong. I think what we're seeing I would characterize as more of a normalization from really exceptionally strong growth. So not a reversal. We're coming off a very, very hard market over the last few years, especially in personal lines. Just as a reminder, over the last four years, we've doubled our personal lines net written premiums. We've tripled it over the last 10 years. More broadly, Since the end of 2018 to 2025, we doubled the company's net written premium. Our compounded annual growth rate over the last five years has been at 10.4%. That's for the entire company. It's been 8.6% over the last 10 years. And our combined ratio over that entire time has been in the mid-90s. We've not had one year in excess growth. So I know there's a lot of talk about growth. We're focused on it. I think we've got a great business model. We've got great agents. We've got a great team. We've got a proven track record over a long period of time. So we're just going to keep, you know, I hate to use the cliche, but just the blocking and tackling to get out in front of our agents. Keep listening, keep servicing them, keep broadening our product portfolio, and that'd probably be my guidance for you on growth in the future. The one thing I can tell you is it is profit first. We're not going to just grow for the sake of growing, but over time, kind of from what I shared, I think we've proven that we can grow through all market cycles.
Gregory Peters
Analyst, Raymond James
Yeah, you know, one of the things that I thought was pretty unique relative to a number of other companies over the last couple years is your usage of multi-year policies. Can you give us an update on where you are, how that looks inside the book, the total book of business, where it's helping, where maybe it's becoming less of an emphasis?
Steve Spray
President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, I think it's... I think we've had the three-year policy since I've been with the company for 35 years. I'm a huge fan of it. If you look at our underwriting results or underwriting performance, our three-year policies outperform the one year from an underwriting. So our underwriters are the terms, conditions, the pricing, the intuition that they place on that three-year policy. Our results are better. I think if I step up a little higher level, I've always looked at the three-year policy. It's consistent with Cincinnati's long-term approach to everything. We want to make a commitment long-term to our agents. We make long-term commitments to the great policyholders that we have. If you look at the three-year, we write package business. and what we do is we're guaranteeing that the rate won't change on the property, the GL, the crime, and the inland marine. Now the auto, the work comp, the umbrella, those are all subject to anniversary rate change. But we're giving a three-year Commitment to that policyholder. It's on right now. It's a over 50% or it's the majority of our policies and commercial lines. Package policies are on a three-year basis and we're committed to it. It'll go up and down, I guess, as in policy count or package account based on market conditions. And if our underwriters feel like The pricing is getting a little too thin. They can't get as tight of terms and conditions as they feel like they need. That's when you might see a policy on a one year. Or if we've, you know, if we've had some loss issues, but we still believe in the account, we'll, you know, we may go year to year on that one just to, you know, to get it through that period and then hopefully get them back on a three year contract.
Gregory Peters
Analyst, Raymond James
Fun detail. Thanks.
Steve Spray
President and Chief Executive Officer
Hey, you know what, Greg, I might just add one more thing that came into my mind is, you know, that three year policy, you know, it, it protects us to in a down market, you know, when we've got that, when we've got those, those rates locked in, in a down market, it can, it can protect us on the downside, too.
Gregory Peters
Analyst, Raymond James
That's what I was thinking of. So yeah, great. Thanks for the point.
Julianne
Conference Call Operator
Our next question comes from Mike Ceremski from BMO Capital Market.
Julianne
Conference Call Operator
Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Unknown
Conference Call Participant
Oh, hey. Thanks.
Mike Sceremski
Analyst, BMO Capital Markets
I guess the first question is just kind of looking at the reserve release trend line and looking also at IV&R levels, which remain very high by recent historical standards. If you'd agree with that, maybe they should stay high for reasons you might want to elaborate on. But is lowering IBNR levels a tool to help achieve kind of the value creation ratio goal going forward? I mean, in other ways, have you guys been a bit too conservative on reserves, do you feel?
Mike Sewell
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Hey Mike, that's a good question and I would say absolutely we do not release reserves, set up reserves based on VCR or where that might end up. So it's an actuarial process. We follow actuarial methods. It's consistent. It's with the same actuary folks that are doing the work. So that is Totally independent. So you kind of mentioned two things in there with the reserve development. I would say for the reserve development for the quarter, 3.6 points, that was probably, and it was just a little higher than our five-year average, which was 3.1 points of favorable development on average. But when you look at it on a full year basis, we're at 2.8 points on a year-to-date basis so far through the three quarters. And if I look back at the last five years, that range has really been kind of in a 2% to 3% range. So year-to-date, we are within that average. I'd say for IB&R, Related to that, we still have uncertainty out there. You've got legal things going on, this and that. So we did add most of our IV&R is in the commercial casualty, which is not a surprise to you as you've looked at our materials. But we will stay prudent. We want to be in the upper half. of the actuarial range. And you look back at the consistency, you know, for 30 years, we have been extremely consistent with how we reserve, what the process is, and we're very proud of that. So it's a great question. I appreciate it, Mike.
Mike Sceremski
Analyst, BMO Capital Markets
That's helpful. Maybe pivoting to some of the market dynamics on pricing power versus loss trend. I believe in the remarks earlier, you said that there's more pressure on kind of the larger account business. You guys have been through lots of cycles, but I think that over the last 10 years, you guys have grown into large account, whereas you didn't have a lot of large account in the past. So just trying to tease out what percentage of the book is kind of what you define as larger and just in terms of the competitive environment, given The industry's very healthy profitability level. So does it, you know, does this level of competition kind of make sense for pricing to start falling below loss trend from a kind of industry perspective? Thanks.
Steve Spray
President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, Mike. No, as far as pricing on, you know, falling below loss trends, you know, we've been pretty consistent there in that, you know, other than workers' compensation, we think and then you know I think general liability would be under pressure there too time will time will tell but we think that on the on the other major lines of business rate uh is meeting or exceeding loss trend you know we're a package writer we as you know we underwrite policy by policy we price policy by policy so you know it I was just making a general statement as far as uh Where we're just seeing a little more intense competition. Other carriers, you know, and all carriers, I think, really, when you get these larger accounts, they just get under more premium pressure. But I wouldn't think about a segment or, you know, at an account level that the pricing would fall below lost costs. We're underwriting and pricing policy by policy.
Mike Sceremski
Analyst, BMO Capital Markets
Okay, yeah, I understood. I think I was multitasking. It was Hartford that just said that GL pricing was a bit below loss trend. So apologies. Thank you. Good call.
Steve Spray
President and Chief Executive Officer
No, no. Well, yeah, we're seeing, like I said, we're, you know, we're not saying that.
Unknown
Conference Call Participant
It's just, it's under pressure.
Julianne
Conference Call Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Josh Shanker from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Josh Shanker
Analyst, Bank of America
Yeah, thank you for taking my question. On that Hartford call, they talked a little about workers' comp margins changing. I realize you're not a big comp writer, but I was looking at your comp numbers and it reminded me that it seems there's been a change in how you are reserving for comp. Once upon a time, you used to have an accident-year loss ratio in the 70s, and there was less favorable development. Now it's being booked up in the mid-90s with lots of favorable development. Can you talk a little about the transition? about what that accounting means and how we should understand it in terms of where we are in workers' comp and whatnot.
Steve Spray
President and Chief Executive Officer
You know, Josh, yeah, no, there's not been any change in the consistency of the process there. I know what you're saying. I think we look at frequency and severity, pure premium, on every major line of business. And I think we've just, probably along with the rest of the industry, just been a bit surprised in the frequency and the severity over time. As you know, it's a long tail line. It's It can, as you've seen in prior cycles, it can turn on you pretty quick. So just maintain, you know, a consistent, prudent process in the way we've reserved. You know, workers' compensation, Josh, 15 years ago kind of happened to us. You know, we grew up in a monopolistic society. stayed here in Ohio. We obviously don't write work comp in Ohio. We don't write work comp in California. We do not write workers' compensation in Florida. And about 15 years ago, we got very deliberate about managing workers' compensation on all underwriting, pricing, sophistication, loss control, claims management. And we're confident in our ability to write Work comp business for our agents is part of the package. It's just that that rate environment has been difficult over the last few years, and that's just put pressure on our ability to grow it. And you mentioned, Josh, workers' compensation is now, it's a little less than 5% of our total net written premiums in commercial lines.
Josh Shanker
Analyst, Bank of America
And I realize I'm a big writer, but it does give me some insight into how you think about the reserves. I imagine that if you really thought the business had a loss ratio in the 90s, you wouldn't want to write it. Or am I thinking about this incorrectly?
Steve Spray
President and Chief Executive Officer
No, I mean, if we really thought that the loss ratio is in the 90s, that's correct. That would not be... That wouldn't be something that we would be targeting to grow.
Josh Shanker
Analyst, Bank of America
And that's where your loss ratio is right now, no?
Steve Spray
President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, the action year, yes, our action year right now is at 95.8.
Josh Shanker
Analyst, Bank of America
And that's your best estimate of where you think the market is right now, yes?
Mike Sewell
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
That is, Josh, where we think we are. But we follow a consistent process. Again, it's our reserving methodology. There's nothing that you're reading into that. It's a smaller line. It's a billion dollars of reserves out of our $12.3 billion total reserves. So, yeah, it's something that we will continue to look at when we – Allocate our capital to the various lines of business.
Josh Shanker
Analyst, Bank of America
And if you'll indulge me with one unrelated question to that, you know, you're appointing a lot of new agents, the growth is slowing. Is there any indication that the agent appointments you're making today are the same, more or less efficient than the past of getting the agent to give you the proportion of their books that you're looking for?
Steve Spray
President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, thanks, Josh. Yeah, that's something we monitor very closely. Matter of fact, we're having a discussion on that this morning, and we're seeing a consistent approach over the long term, including the more recent years when we've picked up the pace of adding agencies. Now, you know, We add what we're looking for in any communities. We're looking for a professional agency, an agency that is kind of a pillar in the community, does things the right way. They're seen as centers of influence, and that's what we're looking for regardless of the size of the agency. So we'll appoint agencies in some cases that are startups, that are smaller agencies, and we're obviously doing business with The largest brokers in the world as well. So, you know, I think if anything, Josh, maybe that's what the dynamic that's moved around a little bit over the last several years is just the M&A activity on the agency front. But we underwrite each and every agency. on its own merits. And we want every agency, I think another key point there, we want every agency that we appoint to get what we call the Cincinnati experience. So they get the entire field team, they get the same, they just get the same care, services and relationship building that we've provided to our agencies for years.
Unknown
Conference Call Participant
Thank you for all the details. Thank you, Josh.
Julianne
Conference Call Operator
For any additional questions, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from Mike Sremski from BMO Capital Markets.
Julianne
Conference Call Operator
Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Mike Sceremski
Analyst, BMO Capital Markets
Oh, great. Thanks. I guess my follow-up, I don't think this was fully covered, was kind of the personal lines, competitive environment. Obviously, on a multi-year basis, you all have grown meaningfully. In more recent quarters, we can see the trend. Just kind of wanted to further unpack kind of what the competitive environment looks like so we can better understand how to think about going forward.
Steve Spray
President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, thanks, Mike. And you already mentioned it, and I talked about it earlier, just coming off an unprecedented hard market. I think new business and just net written premium growth is normalized from exceptionally high levels versus kind of a reversal. The middle market Personal line space, so think replacement cost of the home, let's just call it under a million dollars and all that goes with that. You know, that marketplace really plays out in the independent agency model too through real-time raters or comparative raters. So, you know, it's a really competitive marketplace. I think the key in the middle market space is that you have got to have sophisticated segmented pricing algorithms really using the data and the analytics that you have and that we have here at Cincinnati and other carriers do too that's the key in that market through all market cycles and then you know about 60% of our personal lines business now is high net worth and high net worth is certainly competitive. There are fewer participants there. I think entry is a little more difficult. You've got to really be able to provide the services and the things that that segment needs. And we've proven that I think we, if you asked our agents, we would be considered one of the premier private client underwriters in the business. And we're capable of writing, you know, some of the largest accounts in the United States and that ultra high net worth space too. So I think You know, you've seen our book move more towards that ultra high net worth. It doesn't take away one bit our commitment in the middle market space, but I think you'll continue to see that private client or high net worth will become a bigger and bigger portion of what we do.
Unknown
Conference Call Participant
Great color. Thank you, Steve. Thank you, Mike.
Julianne
Conference Call Operator
Our next question comes from Mayor Shields from KBW. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Mike Sceremski
Analyst, BMO Capital Markets
Great, thanks so much. I guess first on commercial auto, so we've seen progress in the underlying loss ratio pretty much every quarter this year. And I'm wondering, is that a recalibration of earlier quarter?
Unknown
Conference Call Participant
You broke up there on us, Mayor.
Steve Spray
President and Chief Executive Officer
It was commercial auto, and I think you said we're seeing good results there throughout the year. I think you mentioned something about a recalibration. It's not a recalibration. Again, I think one of the keys for us is that we're a package, and commercial lines, we're a package writer. The majority of what we do is small to mid-sized package business. I think our fleet that we ensure is a little more predictable, a little more consistent. We're not into riding large trucking or transportation risks. We've been working hard on auto going back to probably 2016, 2017. We were early to the game there and seeing some trends. and you know managed through all of that including that higher inflationary environment you know their book was in a really good spot and we felt a little pain from inflation but I think we were able to act upon it pretty quickly too and just You know, it's a challenging line. You know, it follows legal system abuse as well to an extent. So it's something you need to, we need to continue to watch, be prudent on. Obviously, it's shorter tail, but we feel good about where that auto book is. And, you know, it's just, we'll stay prudent with it and hopefully keep getting the results we're getting.
Julianne
Conference Call Operator
Our last question will come from Fred Nelson, a private investor. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Fred Nelson
Private Investor
Everything I see has inflation to it, and particularly regarding health care, automobiles. And I'm just curious, in your investment portfolio, you seem to be exercising fixed income over the equity dividends and rising dividends. Maybe you could make a comment that would be helpful. Thank you.
Steve Soloria
Chief Investment Officer
Yeah, Fred, this is Steve. We continue to play both sides of the marketplace, but there's no doubt with interest rates higher than they've been in the last 15, 16, 17 years, we're trying to take a little bit advantage of that and lock in some longer term rates. Some of the equity markets, it's traded very well over the last few years. We've trimmed around some really well-performing stocks and redeployed some of that into the fixed income market. So we're trying to take advantage where we can, take some profits where we can, but continue to kind of build a cash flow driven machine moving forward.
Unknown
Conference Call Participant
Thank you.
Fred Nelson
Private Investor
Thank you.
Unknown
Conference Call Participant
Thank you, Fred.
Julianne
Conference Call Operator
We have no further questions. I would like to turn the call back over to the company's CEO, Steve Spray, for any closing remarks.
Steve Spray
President and Chief Executive Officer
Okay, thank you, Julianne, and thank you all for joining us today. We look forward to speaking with all of you again on our fourth quarter call.
Julianne
Conference Call Operator
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.