UPDATE 3-US insurer Hartford beats Street, shares up 5 pct

* Q3 loss per share $0.79 vs year-ago loss $8.70 per share

* Q3 "core" EPS $1.56 beats Street view $1.11

* Raises full-year outlook

* Shares gain nearly 5 percent (Adds analyst and CEO comment, financial detail, background)

By Lilla Zuill

NEW YORK, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Hartford Financial Services Group Inc (HIG.N: Quote, Profile, Research), a large U.S. life and property insurer that took $3.4 billion in federal aid this year, reported sharply improved third-quarter results on Tuesday, beating Wall Street expectations and sending its shares up nearly 5 percent.

The company posted its fifth straight quarterly net loss, but had a vast improvement from a record loss a year earlier. Hartford, like many others in the life insurance sector, was badly battered in late 2008 and into 2009 by massive losses on stock market-linked annuities and investments.

Like other insurers, Hartford's results have improved as credit markets have stabilized, leading to narrower capital losses. In the latest quarter, Hartford had net realized capital losses of $885 million from impaired investments and a hedging program, compared with capital losses of $2.2 billion a year ago.

Third-quarter earnings from operations, or what Hartford refers to as "core" profit, was $660 million, or $1.56 a share, widely beating analysts' average expectations of a profit on this basis of $1.11 a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.