FRANKFURT--Germany's Hannover Re SE (HNR1.XE) on Wednesday said it is on track to hit its full-year targets after net profit rose 21% in the third quarter, helped by low costs for big disasters and a rise in net investment income.

Hannover Re, one of the four biggest reinsurers worldwide by premium revenue, also issued guidance for 2015. It is aiming for a net profit of around EUR875 million ($1.11 billion), up from this year's target of EUR850 million. It targets gross premium revenue from flat to a low single-digit-percentage rise, an unchanged dividend payout ratio of 35%-40% of net profit and a return on investment of around 3%.

Quarterly net profit rose 21% to EUR251 million from EUR206.7 million, beating the EUR204 million forecast by analysts in a Dow Jones Newswires poll. Net investment income rose 14% to EUR413.8 million, substantially above analysts' forecasts of EUR341 million.

Gross premium revenue rose 9.9% to EUR3.64 billion, also above the forecast EUR3.40 billion.

Hannover Re's quarterly bill for natural and man-made disasters amounted to EUR242.2 million, a little more than half the EUR446.7 million it had to pay for major claims in the same quarter a year earlier.

While reinsurers' results are currently benefiting from low payouts for claims and the benign U.S. Atlantic hurricane season so far, the low amount of damage is a double-edged sword. It also makes the sector's demand for higher rates from primary insurers extremely challenging in an environment in which prices are already falling because of the high liquidity the sector has attracted due to protracted low interest rates in capital markets.

Hannover Re is majority-owned by Talanx AG (TLX.XE), Germany's third-largest insurance group.

-Write to Ulrike Dauer at ulrike.dauer@wsj.com

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