Stevens Capital Management LP Buys 6,490 Shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Stevens Capital Management LP lifted its stake in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 218.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,460 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,490 shares during the quarter. Progressive accounts for about 0.9% of Stevens Capital Management LP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest holding. Stevens Capital Management LP’s holdings in Progressive were worth $2,267,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in PGR. LPL Financial LLC grew its position in Progressive by 21.1% during the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 473,677 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $113,498,000 after buying an additional 82,404 shares during the period. Fox Run Management L.L.C. bought a new stake in Progressive during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $476,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new stake in Progressive during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $59,631,000. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC grew its position in Progressive by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC now owns 19,062 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $4,567,000 after buying an additional 203 shares during the period. Finally, Plancorp LLC grew its position in Progressive by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. Plancorp LLC now owns 1,301 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $312,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the period. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on PGR. Raymond James upgraded shares of Progressive from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 26th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Progressive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. HSBC lowered shares of Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $267.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of Progressive from $318.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Progressive from $300.00 to $307.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $281.06.

Insider Buying and Selling at Progressive

In other news, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.66, for a total value of $2,386,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 282,958 shares in the company, valued at approximately $67,530,756.28. This trade represents a 3.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Andrew J. Quigg sold 681 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.10, for a total transaction of $164,870.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 33,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,137,465.20. This trade represents a 1.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 65,495 shares of company stock worth $16,668,034 over the last 90 days. 0.34% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Progressive Price Performance

PGR stock opened at $273.08 on Friday. The Progressive Co. has a one year low of $201.34 and a one year high of $292.99. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $261.96 and its 200-day moving average price is $255.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a current ratio of 0.31. The company has a market capitalization of $160.08 billion, a PE ratio of 18.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.35.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The insurance provider reported $4.08 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.44 by $0.64. Progressive had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 33.79%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that The Progressive Co. will post 14.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.15%. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 2.78%.

About Progressive

The Progressive Corporation, an insurance holding company, provides personal and commercial auto, personal residential and commercial property, business related general liability, and other specialty property-casualty insurance products and related services in the United States. It operates in three segments: Personal Lines, Commercial Lines, and Property.