3 hours Ago
Bank of America has quickly changed its mind on insurance stock Progressive . BofA upgraded Progressive back to buy on Monday, after downgrading the stock to neutral just three weeks ago, and raised its price target to $312 per share from $297. The firm's forecast calls for roughly 18% upside from Friday's $265.
01 close. "This is a lot of 12mo upside for what has arguably been the S & P 100 stock with the best risk-adjusted returns over the prior decade," analyst Joshua Shanker said of the upgrade. PGR YTD mountain Progressive stock in 2025.
The switch is "an uncommonly short time to reverse a recommendation change," he noted. Shanker attributed the reversal of opinion on Progressive stock to its sharp underperformance of the S & P 500 in the 15 trading sessions between the initial downgrade and upgrade today as well as earnings result that showed a burst in new personal auto customers. Progressive stock slipped 8% over the time period, Shanker noted, which equates to underperforming the S & P 500 by 1,000 basis points, a move that could be overdone.
"Progressive is arguably the best operator within its niches of the insurance market with continued opportunity for market share gain and economies of scale growth," the analyst said. Shanker also pointed to Progressive's strong first-quarter results which he said saw the company notch its best March ever on a percentage basis. Progressive stock has ticked up about 10% so far in 2025 and was up 1.
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