Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) Competitors

Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.B) and Progressive (NYSE:PGR) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, media sentiment, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, dividends, community ranking, earnings and risk.

Do analysts rate BRK.B or PGR?

Berkshire Hathaway presently has a consensus target price of $520.00, suggesting a potential upside of 3.19%. Progressive has a consensus target price of $288.24, suggesting a potential upside of 3.93%. Given Progressive's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Progressive is more favorable than Berkshire Hathaway.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Berkshire Hathaway	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
Progressive	0 Sell rating(s)	7 Hold rating(s)	11 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.61

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of BRK.B or PGR?

39.3% of Berkshire Hathaway shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 85.3% of Progressive shares are held by institutional investors. 6.1% of Berkshire Hathaway shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Progressive shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more volatility & risk, BRK.B or PGR?

Berkshire Hathaway has a beta of 0.88, meaning that its stock price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Progressive has a beta of 0.4, meaning that its stock price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer BRK.B or PGR?

Progressive received 348 more outperform votes than Berkshire Hathaway when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 67.25% of users gave Berkshire Hathaway an outperform vote while only 54.78% of users gave Progressive an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Berkshire Hathaway	Outperform Votes 271 67.25%	Underperform Votes 132 32.75%
Progressive	Outperform Votes 619 54.78%	Underperform Votes 511 45.22%

Does the media prefer BRK.B or PGR?

In the previous week, Progressive had 22 more articles in the media than Berkshire Hathaway. MarketBeat recorded 46 mentions for Progressive and 24 mentions for Berkshire Hathaway. Progressive's average media sentiment score of 1.30 beat Berkshire Hathaway's score of 0.31 indicating that Progressive is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Berkshire Hathaway	10 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	12 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Progressive	32 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is BRK.B or PGR more profitable?

Berkshire Hathaway has a net margin of 28.89% compared to Progressive's net margin of 11.25%. Progressive's return on equity of 33.79% beat Berkshire Hathaway's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Berkshire Hathaway	28.89%	6.94%	3.77%
Progressive	11.25%	33.79%	8.21%

Which has higher valuation and earnings, BRK.B or PGR?

Berkshire Hathaway has higher revenue and earnings than Progressive. Berkshire Hathaway is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Progressive, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Berkshire Hathaway	$415.78B	2.61	$96.22B	$37.52	13.43
Progressive	$78.51B	2.07	$8.48B	$14.83	18.70

Summary

Progressive beats Berkshire Hathaway on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.