Progressive (PGR) ended the recent trading session at $281.23, demonstrating a -1.08% swing from the preceding day's closing price. The stock's performance was behind the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.67%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.56%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.87%.
The insurer's shares have seen an increase of 0.39% over the last month, surpassing the Finance sector's loss of 3.32% and the S&P 500's loss of 5.28%.
The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Progressive in its upcoming release. In that report, analysts expect Progressive to post earnings of $4.50 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 20.64%. Meanwhile, the latest consensus estimate predicts the revenue to be $20.38 billion, indicating a 19.29% increase compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
Looking at the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $15.43 per share and revenue of $87.22 billion. These totals would mark changes of +9.82% and +16.13%, respectively, from last year.
Investors should also pay attention to any latest changes in analyst estimates for Progressive. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts' favorable outlook on the company's business health and profitability.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. To utilize this, we have created the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model that integrates these estimate changes and provides a functional rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 2.31% higher. As of now, Progressive holds a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
In terms of valuation, Progressive is presently being traded at a Forward P/E ratio of 18.43. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 12.25.
We can additionally observe that PGR currently boasts a PEG ratio of 1.69. Comparable to the widely accepted P/E ratio, the PEG ratio also accounts for the company's projected earnings growth. As of the close of trade yesterday, the Insurance - Property and Casualty industry held an average PEG ratio of 1.96.
The Insurance - Property and Casualty industry is part of the Finance sector. At present, this industry carries a Zacks Industry Rank of 39, placing it within the top 16% of over 250 industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the vigor of our specific industry groups by computing the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks incorporated in the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Remember to apply Zacks.com to follow these and more stock-moving metrics during the upcoming trading sessions.
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The Progressive Corporation (PGR): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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