Progressive sees CR improvement in Q3

Progressive released its third quarter 2023 results. Below are some highlights.

• Generated $15.6 billion of net premiums written, an increase of $2.6 billion compared to the third quarter 2022.
• Net income for the quarter stood at $1.12 billion, compared to $124 million for the same period last year.
• Combined ratio for the quarter was 92.4%, a 6.8 point improvement compared to Q3 2022.
• Combined ratio for agency auto and direct auto was 93.8% and 88.9%, respectively.
• Expense ratio was 2.5 points lower in the third quarter 2023, compared to the same period last year, in large part due to a 52% decrease in advertising spend in the third quarter 2023, which brought year-to-date advertising costs to $1.3 billion, compared to $1.6 billion for the first nine months of 2022.
• Continued implementing measures to support the goal of achieving target profit margin that included slowing new business growth through verification activities, bill plan offerings, and through ongoing general operational expense discipline.
• Ended the quarter with 29.6 million policies in force, an increase of 2.8 million policies, or 10%, over September 30, 2022, and nearly 33,000 more policies than were in force at the end of the second quarter 2023.
• While companywide policies in force increased during the third quarter 2023, total personal auto policies in force were down compared to June 30, 2023.
• The personal lines decline reflected a decrease in both Progressive’s agency and direct auto businesses, combining for a total decrease of 20% for new personal auto business applications.
• While new business is down YoY, policy life expectancy has lengthened across personal lines products.
• Personal lines, commercial lines, and property businesses generated an underwriting profit margin of 8.8%, 0.9%, and 11.8%, respectively.
• During the third quarter 2023, on a year-over-year basis, average written premium per policy grew 12% in both personal auto and property, and 4% in commercial auto.
• The adoption rates for consumers enrolling in Snapshot increased about 15% in agency auto and was flat in direct auto, compared to the third quarter of 2022.