Principal Financial Group Inc. Reduces Stock Position in The Progressive Corporation $PGR

Principal Financial Group Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) by 2.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 841,308 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 21,550 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.14% of Progressive worth $166,781,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of PGR. IFC Advisors LLC boosted its position in Progressive by 13.8% during the first quarter. IFC Advisors LLC now owns 30,507 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $6,048,000 after purchasing an additional 3,695 shares in the last quarter. Arbejdsmarkedets Tillaegspension increased its position in shares of Progressive by 19.6% in the first quarter. Arbejdsmarkedets Tillaegspension now owns 122,868 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $24,357,000 after buying an additional 20,111 shares in the last quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB raised its stake in shares of Progressive by 3.1% during the 1st quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 556,076 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $110,237,000 after buying an additional 16,601 shares during the last quarter. Triglav Investments D.O.O. boosted its position in shares of Progressive by 4.8% in the 1st quarter. Triglav Investments D.O.O. now owns 28,800 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $5,709,000 after buying an additional 1,307 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Applied Finance Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Progressive by 28.1% in the 1st quarter. Applied Finance Capital Management LLC now owns 12,115 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,402,000 after buying an additional 2,654 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Jeffrey D. Kelly sold 7,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $216.33, for a total transaction of $1,514,310.00. Following the sale, the director owned 22,546 shares in the company, valued at $4,877,376.18. This trade represents a 23.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Steven Broz sold 1,157 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction on Monday, June 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.76, for a total value of $236,907.32. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 27,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,633,152.36. This represents a 4.04% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders sold 15,230 shares of company stock valued at $3,165,817. Company insiders own 0.32% of the company’s stock.

Progressive Price Performance

NYSE:PGR opened at $225.89 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $131.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.43 and a beta of 0.26. The company has a current ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 0.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The company’s 50-day moving average is $208.13 and its two-hundred day moving average is $206.80. The Progressive Corporation has a 12-month low of $189.20 and a 12-month high of $254.93.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 15th. The insurance provider reported $4.80 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.67 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $22.19 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $23.51 billion. Progressive had a net margin of 12.92% and a return on equity of 33.47%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $4.37 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that The Progressive Corporation will post 17.3 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

PGR has been the subject of several recent research reports. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Progressive from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Bank of America reduced their price target on shares of Progressive from $331.00 to $313.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Progressive in a research report on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Progressive from $216.00 to $215.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 24th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded Progressive from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Progressive presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $236.74.

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.