Spurred by gains in its retirement investment and annuities business, Prudential Financial, the second largest life insurer in the U.S., reported a third quarter profit of $981 million and per share earnings of $2.07.

"Our strong results for the third quarter and first nine months reflect solid underlying performance across our businesses," said John Strangfeld, Prudential's chairman and CEO in a statement. "In the U.S., our retirement solutions and investment management benefits are continuing to benefit from the growth of our base of quality business, with the landmark pension risk transfer transactions we completed last year contributing to our results."

The profits marked a turnaround from the same quarter in 2012, when Prudential, based in Newark, N.J., posted a loss of $627 million, or $1.34 per share. For the year to date, the company reported that the net loss for its financial services businesses attributable to Prudential was $264 million, or 57 cents per share, compared to net income of $642 million, or $1.40 per share, for the first nine months of 2012.