shares of trean insurance group inc lost more than half their value and hit a new low thursday after the specialty insurer posted disappointing quarterly earnings amid a higherthanexpected loss ratio and forecast a slowdown in premium growth the wayzata minn company reported an adjusted profit of 4 cents a share for the fourth quarter below the 10 cents analysts polled by factset on average were expecting trean said its loss ratio jumped to 764 in the quarter from 274 a year earlier due to an unusual number of large losses the company said the elevated losses came mainly from three of its 30 programs adding that those programs were well established and had consistently produced positive results up until last year trean said it believes the programs that will contribute to future profitability despite the losses they experienced in 2021 and that they have reported positive results through february trean also said it expects gross written premiums of between 655 million and 670 million this year representing growth of about 56 at the upper end the company said it plans to deliberately moderate growth this year after a 31 rise in 2021 put it on track to achieve its longterm gross written premium goals adding that it will focus on effectively managing premium this year to ensure sustained net income growth trean shares were recently changing hands at 342 down about 514 after falling to 319the lowest level since the company went public in july 2020earlier in the session the stock is down more than 80 from its alltime high of 1957 reached last march