MetLife Inc., one of the nation’s biggest insurance companies, said Monday third-quarter profit rose 34.6% as it earned higher revenue from premiums and fees.

New York-based MetLife reported that net income available to common shareholders increased to $999 million, or $1.29 a share, from $742 million, or 97 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Revenue rose to $12.5 billion from $11.99 billion a year ago.

The company also announced it would resume its share repurchase program in the fourth quarter and said it has authorized using $716 million toward that. The results beat analysts’ average estimate for profit of $1.17 a share, but revenue was less than the $12.62 billion predicted by Wall Street, according to a Thomson Financial survey.

Operating earnings were $958 million, compared with $780 million in the same period last year. The company’s Metropolitan Life Insurance Company is the biggest individual life insurer in North America.

Earlier in October, MetLife announced it sold Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town — which together form the largest apartment complex in Manhattan — for $5.4 billion. That transaction had no effect on the earnings results.