Berkshire Hathaway May Bid for Direct Line
According to several newspapers including The Independent and The Times of London, Berkshire Hathaway has expressed an interest in bidding for Royal Bank of Scotland's Direct Line insurance business. RBS is facing an EU deadline to sell the Direct Line ...
Lou Simpson Plans to Retire from GEICO in December
According to an article in The Chicago Tribune, Lou Simpson is planning to retire from GEICO at the end of 2010. Mr. Simpson is President and CEO of Capital Operations. Tony Nicely is Chairman, President, and CEO of GEICO's insurance ...
Berkshire Emerges from Recession With Sharply Higher Operating Profits
Berkshire Hathaway posted sharply higher operating profits for the second quarter of 2010 thanks to strength in the insurance operations and major improvements in the company's diverse collection of economically sensitive subsidiaries. However, quarterly net earnings declined to $1.97 billion ...
J.D. Power Releases Auto Insurance Customer Satisfaction Survey
J.D. Power released its 2010 U.S. National Auto Insurance Study (pdf) today and found that overall consumer satisfaction with insurance companies declined in 2010 after peaking in 2009. Overall satisfaction averages 777 on a 1,000 point scale which represents a ...
Barclays Capital’s Bearish Forecast for GEICO is Unwarranted
Berkshire Hathaway has been attracting more analyst coverage in recent weeks due to the company’s inclusion in the Standard & Poor’s 500 and expanded institutional interest due to factors such as the Burlington Northern Santa Fe acquisition. Earlier this week, ...
A Look at Progressive’s Loss Estimation Accuracy
Last week, we took a brief look at Berkshire Hathaway’s loss estimation accuracy over the past ten years. As we noted in the article, the process of estimating the ultimate losses resulting from an insurance company’s business is one of ...
GEICO May Soon Surpass Progressive’s Market Share
It's war on the television screen. On one side you have GEICO's Gecko and the famously maligned Caveman. On the other side is Flo, the hyper enthusiastic Progressive sales clerk. It's hard to escape these characters during sporting events or ...
Berkshire Hathaway Posts Q2 2009 Results
Berkshire Hathaway reported results for the second quarter following the close of trading today. Operating earnings per share declined 21.7% to $1,147 per A share, down from $1,465 in the second quarter of 2008. Operating earnings per share for the ...
GEICO vs. Progressive: Selected Ten Year Metrics
Today, I reviewed Value Line's latest coverage of the Property/Casualty Insurance Industry. I spent a bit more time on Progressive than on most of the other company profiles. I have not followed Progressive in great detail in the past other ...
Berkshire Hathaway Posts Q1 2009 Results
Berkshire Hathaway reported results for the first quarter following the close of trading today. While Berkshire reported a loss in terms of GAAP net income for the quarter, the underlying results for the operating business are actually quite solid given ...
GEICO Enters Massachusetts Market
GEICO has announced plans to begin selling auto insurance in Massachussets following the implementation of reforms that eliminate price regulaton by the state and permit companies to set their own rates. With GEICO's entry into the Massachussets market, the company ...