B.Riley FBR Sticks to Their Hold Rating for Progressive

B.Riley FBR analyst Randy Binner maintained a Hold rating on Progressive (NYSE: PGR) yesterday and set a price target of $54. The company’s shares opened today at $61.09, close to its 52-week high of $62.99.

Binner said:

“On May 16, PGR reported April operating EPS of $0.45 versus our estimate of $0.28. Top-line growth was higher than our forecast. Net premiums written (NPW) growth was +19.3% versus our +5.0% estimate. The reported underlying loss ratio (ex-cat and PYD) came in at 67.3% in April versus our 71.3% estimate. Cat losses came in higher at $51M versus our $36M estimate, and unfavorable prior year development (PYD) of $17.3M was over our forecast of no reserve development. The expense ratio was 20.2% versus our 20.3% estimate. In line with our estimate, the company did not repurchase shares in the month but reported that their board of directors authorized the purchase of up to 25M shares in the future. We maintain our Neutral rating and $54 price target with the shares now trading at 16.1x our 2018 EPS estimate of $3.85, versus the five-year historical P/E median of 15.6x.”

According to TipRanks.com, Binner is a 5-star analyst with an average return of 13.1% and a 66.3% success rate. Binner covers the Financial sector, focusing on stocks such as American International Group, Health Insurance Innovations, and National General Holdings.

Currently, the analyst consensus on Progressive is Hold and the average price target is $63.33, representing a 3.7% upside.

In a report issued on May 3, Wells Fargo also maintained a Hold rating on the stock with a $64 price target.

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Progressive’s market cap is currently $35.88B and has a P/E ratio of 19.19. The company has a Price to Book ratio of 3.65.

Based on the recent corporate insider activity of 74 insiders, corporate insider sentiment is negative on the stock.

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Progressive Corp. is an insurance holding company, which engages in the provision of personal and commercial auto insurance, residential property insurance, and other specialty property-casualty insurance and related services. It operates through the following segments: Personal Lines, Commercial Lines, Property, and Other Indemnity.