Progressive: Achieving profit margin takes precedence over growing premiums

In a regulatory filing, Progressive said: "We strongly believe that achieving our target profit margin takes precedence over growing premiums. With focus on achieving our calendar-year underwriting profitability goal of 4% and the fact that inflation has not abated, we are re-evaluating our rate plans and intend to be aggressive with raising rates over the remainder of the year in both our personal and commercial auto products. Of course, some of these rate increases will be subject to regulatory approval. We will also continue to monitor the factors that could impact our loss costs for both our vehicle and Property businesses, which can include new and used car prices, miles driven, driving patterns, loss severity, weather events, building materials, constructions costs, inflation, and other components, on a state-by-state basis, and these factors could change our current plans for rate increases. In addition, we routinely monitor our advertising spend and have recently begun to reduce these costs based on performance against our underwriting targets in certain markets and in certain types of advertising. As a result of these actions to address profitability, growth in premiums and/or policies in force could be adversely impacted."