Here’s Why The Progressive Corporation (PGR) Declined in Q2

Giverny Capital Asset Management, LLC, an investment management company, recently published its second-quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The firm’s model portfolio appreciated 7.92%, net of fees in the second quarter compared to an 8.74% return for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. Year-to-date, the portfolio returned 14.46% compared to 16.89% for the Index. Since inception, the portfolio generated an annualized performance of 17.4%, net of fees, vs. 20.1% for the Index.  In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.

Giverny Capital Asset Management highlighted stocks like The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) in the second quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Mayfield Village, Ohio, The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) is an insurance holding company. On August 24, 2023, The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) stock closed at $131.90 per share. One-month return of The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) was 5.26%, and its shares gained 4.33% of their value over the last 52 weeks. The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) has a market capitalization of $78.15 billion.

Giverny Capital Asset Management made the following comment about The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) in its second quarter 2023 investor letter:

“The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) was another laggard, down 7.4% for the quarter. The US market for auto insurance is in disarray. The price of used cars soared during the pandemic as new car production fell, and so the cost to replace a damaged car is far higher than the insurance companies expected when they wrote their policies. Plus, labor and parts shortages mean repair costs are also soaring. One insurance company CEO told me recently that labor inflation for auto body shops continues to rise by double-digit percentages.

Auto insurers collectively lost nearly 12 cents on every dollar of premium they collected in 2022, per S&P Global Market Intelligence. The auto insurance industry is massive – it’s a required product and there are more than 250 million cars in America. It’s a staggering level of loss. Progressive is faring better than its peer group, as it earned a small profit in 2022. However, trends are worse so far in 2023.  The industry is busy raising rates to try to stem losses, but in a regulated industry rate increases tend to lag inflation…” (Click here to read the full text)

The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 69 hedge fund portfolios held The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) at the end of second quarter which was 64 in the previous quarter.

We discussed The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) in another article and shared The London Company Large Cap Strategy’s views on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2023 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.