Index Fund Advisors Inc. Invests $232,000 in The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR)

Index Fund Advisors Inc. bought a new position in The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 818 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $232,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Progressive by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 53,400,366 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $12,795,262,000 after buying an additional 583,376 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Progressive by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,615,430 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,498,363,000 after buying an additional 189,638 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Progressive in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,843,045,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Progressive by 13.0% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,179,529 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,480,677,000 after buying an additional 710,684 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in shares of Progressive by 34.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 6,058,187 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,451,602,000 after buying an additional 1,547,677 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Dyke Kahina Van sold 2,490 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $277.67, for a total transaction of $691,398.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 12,429 shares in the company, valued at $3,451,160.43. The trade was a 16.69% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Steven Broz sold 1,267 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.38, for a total transaction of $329,901.46. Following the transaction, the insider owned 27,621 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,191,955.98. This trade represents a 4.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 42,705 shares of company stock worth $11,450,948. Company insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on PGR shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Progressive from $328.00 to $333.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, June 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Progressive from $267.00 to $287.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Progressive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, June 21st. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Progressive from $297.00 to $287.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Progressive from $288.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $285.41.

Progressive Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of PGR stock opened at $250.35 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $272.83 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $265.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 0.29 and a quick ratio of 0.29. The Progressive Corporation has a 1 year low of $207.50 and a 1 year high of $292.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $146.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.88, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 0.37.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 16th. The insurance provider reported $4.65 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.28 by $0.37. The firm had revenue of $22.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $21.87 billion. Progressive had a net margin of 11.10% and a return on equity of 33.50%. As a group, analysts anticipate that The Progressive Corporation will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 11th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 4th will be given a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a dividend yield of 0.15%. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 2.70%.

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.