Progressive June, Q2 Profit Rises On Higher Gains

(RTTNews) - Auto insurance group Progressive Corp. (PGR) reported Friday a profit for the second quarter that increased 24 percent from last year, reflecting significantly higher net realized gains on securities.

Profit for the month of June also soared 95 percent from last year, reflecting a surge in net realized gains on securities.

The Mayfield Village, Ohio-based company reported net income of $363.3 million or $0.62 per share for the second quarter, higher than $293.4 million or $0.49 per share in the prior-year quarter.

The results for the latest quarter include pretax net realized gains on securities of $76.0 million, up 88 percent from $40.4 million a year ago.

On average, 22 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.55 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Net premiums written for the quarter grew 13 percent from the year-ago period to $5.25 billion, and net premiums earned rose 11 percent to $5.0 billion from last year. Fourteen Wall Street analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $5.12 billion for the quarter.

Combined ratio for the quarter edged down 0.1 percentage points from the year-ago quarter to 92.5 percent.

For the month of June, Progressive posted net income of $94.6 million or $0.16 per share, nearly doubling from $48.5 million or $0.08 per share in the same period last year.

Pretax net realized gains on securities for the month were $43.7 million, up 188 percent from $15.2 million in the prior-year period.

Total revenues for June were $1.47 billion. Net premiums written increased 16 percent to $1.60 billion, and net premiums earned grew 11 percent to $1.55 billion from the prior-ago period.

Combined ratio for June declined 2.6 percentage points from the year-ago period to 95.2 percent.

For June, the company's total personal lines policies in force increased 2 percent to 13.63 million. Of this, total personal auto policies grew 2 percent to 9.50 million, with agency auto policies declining 2 percent, while direct auto policies grew 7 percent. Total special lines policies for the month grew 2 percent from last year to 4.13 million.

Total commercial auto policies in the month also grew 4 percent from last year to 538,400. Property business policies written totaled 1.05 million.

In Friday's regular trading session, PGR is currently trading at $30.98, up $0.80 or 2.65% on a volume of 1.55 million shares.