Assurant Inc. (AIZ), the insurer of foreclosed homes, jumped the most since November in New York trading after second-quarter earnings beat analysts’ estimates.

The insurer climbed 4.8 percent to $34.92 at 9:49 a.m. in New York trading. It’s fallen 15 percent this year.

Operating profit at the New York-based firm was $1.81 per share, exceeding the highest estimate among 10 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Earnings jumped as results improved at Assurant’s specialty-property and health coverage businesses, the company said in a statement late yesterday.

“Core results were well ahead of our estimates,” John Nadel, an analyst at Sterne Agee & Leach Inc., wrote in a research note yesterday. “Capital management accelerated and capital flexibility remains strong.”

Operating income at the specialty-property unit, which insures homes when borrowers lapse on policy payments, more than doubled to $92.3 million in the second quarter from $42.3 million a year earlier. The health division’s operating income jumped to $28.9 million from $5.2 million.

To contact the reporter on this story: Zachary Tracer in New York at ztracer1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Kraut at dkraut2@bloomberg.net