Progressive May Miss Second-Quarter Consensus

Progressive Corp. is estimating its second-quarter profits will fall below Wall Street consensus estimates because of poor underwriting results worsened by catastrophe losses.

The auto insurer’s earnings have fallen 50 cents per share through the first quarter, well below analyst estimates, due to the payment of a substantial amount of old claims. The company’s combined ratio for April and May was 103.5 percent, including 0.9 percent of catastrophe losses.