Piper Jaffray Maintains Neutral on Progressive

Piper Jaffray is out with its report today on Progressive PGR, maintaining Neutral. In a note to clients, Piper Jaffray writes, "Progressive reported operating EPS of $0.11 for the month of May 2011, roughly in-line with PJC's $0.12 estimate. Monthly results included $48M of catastrophe losses (4.2 combined ratio points) vs. $27M in May 2010. More than half of the losses came from Texas, Ohio, Missouri and Minnesota. Despite elevated cat activity, PGR generated a 93.1% combined ratio, down 250bps year/year. Monthly results benefited from 2.9 points of reserve releases. Considering shares trade around 2.0x book value and offer an ROE of 18.0%, we maintain our Neutral rating on PGR." Piper Jaffray maintains a $22 PT on PGR. Shares of PGR closed Wednesday at $19.91, down 2.16% from Tuesday's close.