Mercury General Corp. beat Wall Street’s expectations Monday when it reported a surge in profit helped by net investment income.

Mercury General reported second-quarter net income of $69 million ($1.27 per share), an 82 percent jump from $38 million (69 cents) from the same period a year earlier. Analysts polled by Reuters found analysts looking for earnings of $1.09 per share.

Included in the latest quarter were net realized investment gains of 12 cents a share, compared with 5 cents a share from the previous year.

Revenues for the Los Angeles-based insurer fell more than 2 percent to $737 million while net investment income rose about 13 percent to $41 million.

Net premiums written in California rose about 3 percent to $568 million.

The company’s directors also announced that they had declared a third quarter dividend of 52 cents per share.

Shares in Mercury General were up 4.6 percent, or $2.31, to $52.88 in afternoon trading Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.