PORTLAND – UnumProvident Corp., the nation’s largest disability insurer, posted a 14 percent drop in operating earnings in the third quarter, matching analyst expectations.

Operating profits for the three months ending Sept. 30 totaled $145.5 million, or 60 cents per share, compared to $168.6 million, or 70 cents per share, in the same period in 1999, the company reported Tuesday.

Net income for the third quarter was $137 million, or 57 cents per share, compared to a net loss of $217 million, or 91 cents per share, in last year’s third quarter. The 1999 losses were largely due to merger-related charges and increases in the company’s reserves.

“Our results for the third quarter show generally steady, consistent improvement during 2000 in each of the fundamental areas of our business,” said J. Harold Chandler, chairman, president and chief executive officer.

Chandler said sales were up 9 percent.

Operating profits for the quarter were hurt by an increase in the amount of claims paid out compared with premiums collected in group disability insurance.

E. Stewart Johnson, an analyst with Lehman Bros. in New York, said he believes the third-quarter report signals the company is recovering from difficulties that followed the June 1999 merger.

“Obviously, Unum has been trying to turn the ship around and it seems at this point that the seas have settled,” Johnson said. “Things have stabilized.”

But another analyst, Bradley McCurtain, president of Maine Securities, said he would have expected a better performance from the company in its group long-term disability business.

“That seems to be a market they’ve had a tough time getting a handle on,” he said.

The company, based in Portland and Chattanooga, Tenn., was formed by the merger of the former Unum Corp. and The Provident Companies 17 months ago.