Progressive Inc., Mayfield Village, Ohio, reported a third-quarter earnings decline of 21 percent over last year.

The company reported net income of $305.3 million compared to $389 million for the third quarter of 2004, or $1.55 per share compared with $1.77 for last year's third quarter.

But Lehman Brothers analyst Jay Gelb noted that when the catastrophe costs--which included $185.5 million for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita--were factored out, the earnings per share rose to $2.16.

Recommended For You

Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader

Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© Touchpoint Markets, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more inforrmation visit Asset & Logo Licensing.