Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc. Lowers Holdings in The Progressive Corporation $PGR

Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc. cut its holdings in The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) by 0.5% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 92,276 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 474 shares during the quarter. Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Progressive were worth $24,625,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PGR. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Progressive in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,473,180,000. GQG Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Progressive by 61.4% in the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 8,346,133 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,362,039,000 after purchasing an additional 3,174,632 shares in the last quarter. C WorldWide Group Holding A S lifted its holdings in Progressive by 12,110.3% in the 1st quarter. C WorldWide Group Holding A S now owns 1,248,628 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $353,374,000 after purchasing an additional 1,238,402 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Progressive by 15.2% during the 1st quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 8,263,157 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,338,556,000 after acquiring an additional 1,091,828 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Axiom Investors LLC DE purchased a new stake in shares of Progressive during the 1st quarter worth approximately $194,557,000. 85.34% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on PGR. Barclays set a $271.00 price objective on Progressive in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Progressive from $301.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Progressive from $268.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 18th. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on Progressive from $275.00 to $273.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on Progressive from $309.00 to $287.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 11th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $279.63.

Progressive Stock Performance

NYSE:PGR opened at $240.54 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $245.05 and its 200 day moving average is $259.11. The Progressive Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $228.54 and a fifty-two week high of $292.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $141.01 billion, a PE ratio of 13.55, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a current ratio of 0.31.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 16th. The insurance provider reported $4.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.43 by $0.45. Progressive had a return on equity of 35.37% and a net margin of 12.66%.The company had revenue of $20.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.39 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.48 EPS. Progressive’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that The Progressive Corporation will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 2nd were given a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 2nd. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is 2.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Progressive news, insider Lori A. Niederst sold 8,063 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.18, for a total value of $2,017,201.34. Following the transaction, the insider owned 39,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,767,027.20. This represents a 17.12% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Karen Bailo sold 8,922 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.24, for a total value of $2,223,719.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 32,346 shares in the company, valued at $8,061,917.04. This trade represents a 21.62% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 130,045 shares of company stock worth $31,997,390 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

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.