insurer united fire group inc’s stock ufcs was down 14 tuesday after the company issued a profit warning for its second quarter amid elevated catastrophe claims the cedar rapids iowabased company said it expects a loss of 223 a share and an adjusted loss of 227 a share two analysts that provided estimates to factset were expecting a loss of 111 a share before monday’s announcement the company said the quarter would include pretax reserve strengthening for prior accident years of 53 million and pretax catastrophe losses of 33 million that’s after 18 separate weather events the us has been beset by weather events this year from severe flooding in california that started after christmas and lasted into march dumping rain and record snowfall in parts of the sierra and southern california that was followed by a cold wave in the northeast in early february that downed trees and power lines in new england the southeast and midwest were hammered by tornadoes and severe thunderstorms and hail in march and april united fire will report secondquarter earnings on aug 7 the stock has fallen 24 in the year to date while the sp 500 spx has gained 19