The Progressive Corporation $PGR Shares Bought by Benjamin Edwards Inc.

Benjamin Edwards Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) by 21.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 60,046 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,594 shares during the quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc.’s holdings in Progressive were worth $13,674,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. LVZ Inc. grew its stake in shares of Progressive by 14.1% in the fourth quarter. LVZ Inc. now owns 2,784 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $634,000 after buying an additional 343 shares in the last quarter. Pines Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Progressive by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Pines Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,399 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $319,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC grew its stake in Progressive by 21.3% during the 4th quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC now owns 5,823 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,326,000 after purchasing an additional 1,023 shares in the last quarter. Caisse Des Depots ET Consignations grew its stake in Progressive by 14.5% during the 4th quarter. Caisse Des Depots ET Consignations now owns 37,439 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $8,526,000 after purchasing an additional 4,754 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Composition Wealth LLC grew its stake in Progressive by 30.5% during the 4th quarter. Composition Wealth LLC now owns 2,527 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $575,000 after purchasing an additional 590 shares in the last quarter. 85.34% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on PGR. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Progressive from $205.00 to $190.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 31st. HSBC downgraded Progressive from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 16th. Roth Mkm set a $235.00 target price on Progressive in a report on Thursday, February 19th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Progressive from $218.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 23rd. Finally, Evercore reaffirmed a “negative” rating on shares of Progressive in a research note on Wednesday, March 18th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $238.39.

Progressive Stock Performance

PGR opened at $199.60 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $116.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.15, a P/E/G ratio of 6.58 and a beta of 0.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 0.33 and a quick ratio of 0.35. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $203.18 and its 200 day simple moving average is $212.21. The Progressive Corporation has a 1-year low of $192.02 and a 1-year high of $289.96.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 15th. The insurance provider reported $4.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.67 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $22.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $23.51 billion. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.47% and a net margin of 12.92%.The company’s revenue was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $4.37 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that The Progressive Corporation will post 16.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 2nd. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is 2.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Progressive news, CIO Jonathan S. Bauer sold 2,266 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $203.05, for a total transaction of $460,111.30. Following the sale, the executive owned 26,250 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,330,062.50. This represents a 7.95% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Maribel Pumarejo sold 739 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $203.25, for a total value of $150,201.75. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 6,933 shares of company stock worth $1,441,564 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.32% of the company’s stock.

Progressive Profile

Progressive Corporation is a large U.S.-based property and casualty insurer that primarily underwrites personal auto insurance along with a broad suite of related products. Its offerings include coverage for private passenger automobiles, commercial auto fleets, motorcycles, boats and recreational vehicles, as well as homeowners, renters, umbrella and other specialty P&C products. Progressive also provides claims handling, risk management and related services to individual and commercial policyholders.

The company distributes its products through a mix of direct channels—online and by phone—and an extensive independent agent network.