Rakuten Investment Management Inc. Sells 182,283 Shares of The Progressive Corporation $PGR

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) by 70.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 77,133 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 182,283 shares during the period. Rakuten Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Progressive were worth $17,626,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. L2 Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Progressive by 6.9% in the 4th quarter. L2 Asset Management LLC now owns 2,955 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $673,000 after purchasing an additional 192 shares in the last quarter. Bluedoor Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Progressive in the 4th quarter worth $396,000. 71 West Capital Partners purchased a new stake in Progressive in the 4th quarter worth $538,000. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. purchased a new stake in Progressive in the 4th quarter worth $53,000. Finally, Tobias Financial Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Progressive by 47.2% in the 4th quarter. Tobias Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 1,385 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $315,000 after purchasing an additional 444 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PGR has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Progressive from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $208.00 target price on shares of Progressive in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. Argus upgraded shares of Progressive to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Bank of America decreased their target price on shares of Progressive from $325.00 to $320.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Progressive from $205.00 to $190.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 31st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $238.11.

Progressive Price Performance

Shares of PGR stock opened at $203.40 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 0.27 and a quick ratio of 0.27. The company has a market capitalization of $118.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.34, a P/E/G ratio of 5.89 and a beta of 0.28. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $199.37 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $207.77. The Progressive Corporation has a one year low of $189.20 and a one year high of $269.78.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 15th. The insurance provider reported $4.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.67 by $0.13. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.47% and a net margin of 12.92%.The company had revenue of $22.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $23.51 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $4.37 earnings per share. Progressive’s revenue was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that The Progressive Corporation will post 16.35 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 2nd. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is presently 2.03%.

Insider Activity at Progressive

In other Progressive news, CAO Carl G. Joyce sold 270 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.50, for a total value of $55,755.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 558 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $115,227. This trade represents a 32.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Steven Broz sold 1,157 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total transaction of $231,400.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 28,668 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,733,600. This trade represents a 3.88% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 7,343 shares of company stock valued at $1,470,355 over the last 90 days. 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.