NEW YORK, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Allstate Corp, the largest publicly traded U.S. home and auto insurer, swung to a profit on Wednesday from a year ago loss, helped by lower catastrophe and investment losses.
Net income was $221 million, or 41 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $923 million, or $1.70 a diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.
A year ago, Allstate's results were hurt by both sizable

investment losses and $1.8 billion in catastrophe losses.
Excluding investment gains and losses, Allstate's third- quarter operating profit was $538 million, or 99 cents a share, compared with a loss of $190 million, or 35 cents a share in the same quarter of 2008.
On that basis, analysts on average expected Allstate to have a profit of $1.01 a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
The shares of the Northbrook, Illinois-based insurer fell 0.4 percent, or 12 cents, in the regular session on Wednesday to $29.62 a share.

(Reporting by Lilla Zuill; editing by Andre Grenon) Keywords: ALLSTATE/ (lilla.zuill@thomsonreuters.com;+1 646 223 6281)

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