The veteran insurance outfit Progressive (PGR) found itself with a face as long as the Mississippi on Monday morning. The stock didn’t so much fall as it slipped like a wet bar of soap, sinking almost 3% while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) strutted by, sporting a 1.1% gain.
Downed with a downgrade
Make no mistake, the grim reaper of finance had paid a visit, courtesy of one Bob Huang over at Morgan Stanley. He lowered the boom with a downgrade that sent shivers down the spine of the trading floor. Underweight? Holding on to a sinking ship called Progressive? He slashed the price target from a robust $265 to-well-$265. That’s not a typo; it’s the kind of circular reasoning you’d expect in a cheap novel, not a boardroom.
According to Huang, the winds of change are blowing, and it ain’t a warm gust. Insurers like Progressive are stepping into a grim season of dimming pricing power. The premiums that drape around them like a well-tailored suit are about to become threadbare. Lower earnings per share are expected come 2026 and 2027, and those predictions hang over the company like a thick fog rolling in off the coast.
More progress wanted
But wait-there’s more gloom on the horizon. Alex Scott from Barclays joined the chorus of doom and gloom, scaling back his price target from $271 to a more pedestrian $257. He left the recommendation at equal weight, as if clinging to a piece of driftwood in a storm-tossed sea.
Pessimism is the buzzword of the week in Progressive’s corner of the market. Their recent preliminary third-quarter results hit the streets with all the seduction of a flat tire. Sure, there was some growth tucked away in the shadows, but when the numbers were laid bare, they failed to meet the keen eyes of analysts expecting more meat on the bone.
The stock market isn’t a friendly place these days, and Progressive just found out the hard way that Mondays can be cruel. 🥃
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2025-10-21 03:08