Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. Buys New Stake in The Progressive Corporation $PGR

Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. purchased a new position in The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 16,487 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,602,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PGR. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC acquired a new stake in Progressive during the second quarter valued at approximately $303,234,000. Haverford Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of Progressive in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,140,000. S&G Foundation bought a new position in shares of Progressive during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $18,830,000. Davis Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in shares of Progressive during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $110,210,000. Finally, First Nebraska Trust Co acquired a new stake in Progressive in the 2nd quarter valued at $472,000. Institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Progressive Trading Up 2.1%

PGR stock opened at $223.87 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $215.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $206.82. The Progressive Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $189.20 and a fifty-two week high of $249.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $130.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.23, a P/E/G ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 0.29 and a quick ratio of 0.29.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 15th. The insurance provider reported $5.67 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.64 by $1.03. The company had revenue of $23.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $19.49 billion. Progressive had a return on equity of 32.92% and a net margin of 12.84%.The business’s revenue was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $5.40 earnings per share. Analysts expect that The Progressive Corporation will post 17.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 9th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 1st will be issued a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 1st. Progressive’s payout ratio is currently 2.01%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Progressive

In other Progressive news, insider Lori A. Niederst sold 7,339 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $209.29, for a total value of $1,535,979.31. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,908,847.43. The trade was a 14.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider John Jo Murphy sold 8,124 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $212.70, for a total transaction of $1,727,974.80. Following the transaction, the insider owned 41,291 shares in the company, valued at $8,782,595.70. The trade was a 16.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 83,449 shares of company stock worth $17,685,203 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PGR has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Progressive from $198.00 to $201.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 20th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Progressive from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $226.00 to $250.00 in a research note on Thursday, August 20th. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their target price on shares of Progressive from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 17th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Progressive in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Finally, Evercore set a $240.00 price target on shares of Progressive in a report on Friday, July 10th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Progressive presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $236.05.

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.