When looking at the property and casualty industry’s performance for the first nine months of 2011, or even just the third quarter, the news is the same: sharply declining profits and underwriting results compared to the same periods in 2010, according to three recent reports.

Fitch Ratings analyzed a group of 47 publicly traded U.S. and non-U.S. insurers and reinsurers through the first nine months of 2011 and found the aggregate net profit was $9.7 billion, compared with a net profit of $26.4 billion during the same period last year.

Shortly after the Fitch report, Moody’s Investors Service released a Special Comment stating that aggregate net income for its U.S.-rated companies in 2011’s third quarter was $1.6 billion, down sharply from the 2010 third quarter when net income was $5.4 billion.