Cary Street Partners Financial LLC Takes Position in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Cary Street Partners Financial LLC purchased a new position in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 984 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $236,000.

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

Insider Activity at Progressive

In other news, Director Devin C. Johnson sold 400 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.04, for a total transaction of $110,016.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 8,370 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,302,084.80. The trade was a 4.56 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 1,542 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.66, for a total value of $435,861.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 268,024 shares in the company, valued at approximately $75,759,663.84. This represents a 0.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 39,894 shares of company stock worth $11,020,097. Company insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on PGR shares. Bank of America upgraded shares of Progressive from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $312.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Progressive from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. StockNews.com lowered Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Progressive from $267.00 to $287.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Progressive from $324.00 to $328.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $287.65.

Progressive Stock Performance

NYSE PGR opened at $284.33 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.31 and a quick ratio of 0.30. The company has a market cap of $166.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.75, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.40. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $275.16 and a two-hundred day moving average of $260.37. The Progressive Co. has a 1-year low of $201.34 and a 1-year high of $292.99.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 16th. The insurance provider reported $4.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.28 by $0.37. Progressive had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 33.79%. The firm had revenue of $22.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $21.87 billion. As a group, analysts anticipate that The Progressive Co. will post 14.68 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd were given a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 3rd. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio 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.