Progressive Q1 Profit Up 4%; CFO Domeck To Retire In May 2015

(RTTNews) - Auto insurance group Progressive Corp. (PGR) on Wednesday reported a 4 percent increase in profit for the first quarter from last year, reflecting higher net realized gains on securities. Meanwhile, profit for the month of March surged 60 percent from last year.

Progressive said on Tuesday that Chief Financial Officer Brian Domeck intends to retire after the company's annual meeting of shareholders in May 2015.

Domeck will continue to serve as CFO through early 2015, when the company's 2014 financial statements will be finalized and certified. He is expected to be succeeded by John Sauerland, president of the company's Personal Lines Group.

The Mayfield Village, Ohio-based company reported net income for the first quarter of $321.3 million or $0.54 per share, up from $308.6 million or $0.51 per share in the prior-year quarter. The latest quarter's results include pretax net realized gains on securities of $119.4 million, up 48 percent from $80.6 million a year ago.

On average, 21 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.39 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Net premiums written for the quarter grew 5 percent from the year-ago period to $4.68 billion, while net premiums earned also rose 5 percent from last year to $4.40 billion. Analysts' revenue consensus was $4.62 billion for the quarter.

Combined ratio for the quarter rose 1 percentage point from the year-ago quarter to 93.4 percent.

For the month of March, Progressive posted net income of $118.5 million or $0.20 per share, up from $74.2 million or $0.12 per share in the same period last year. Pretax net realized gains on securities for the month doubled to $38.6 million from $18.7 million in the prior-year period.

Total revenues for March were $1.48 billion. Net premiums written increased 10 percent from the prior-ago period to $1.56 billion, while net premiums earned grew 5 percent to $1.37 billion.

Combined ratio for March declined 3.1 percentage points from the year-ago period to 91.8 percent.

For March, the company's total personal lines policies in force increased 3 percent to 13.28 million. Of this, total personal auto policies grew 4 percent to 9.30 million, with 1 percent growth in agency auto policies and 7 percent growth in direct auto policies.

Total special lines policies for the month grew 1 percent from last year to 3.98 million. However, total commercial auto policies in the month declined 2 percent from last year to 509,400.

Progressive said on Tuesday that Sauerland will continue in his current role as president of the company's Personal Lines Group, while preparing to assume the CFO's responsibilities.

To facilitate this transition, Progressive will transfer responsibility for the company's Customer Relationship Management or CRM group from Sauerland to Tricia Griffith, President of the Claims Group.

The CRM group comprises the company's contact center groups, as well as the customer experience, systems experience, and workforce management groups.

The outgoing CFO Domeck joined Progressive in 1987 as controller for the Central States division, and has served in numerous other roles, including general management, product management and business controllerships. He has been the company's CFO since 2007.

In Wednesday's regular trading session, PGR is trading at $24.06, down $0.10 or 0.41 percent on a volume of 129,692 shares.