Progressive (NYSE:PGR) Insider Sells $268,765.00 in Stock

The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) insider Steven Broz sold 1,225 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $219.40, for a total transaction of $268,765.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 31,257 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,857,785.80. This trade represents a 3.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Steven Broz also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, June 22nd, Steven Broz sold 1,157 shares of Progressive stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.76, for a total value of $236,907.32.
• On Friday, June 5th, Steven Broz sold 1,157 shares of Progressive stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total value of $231,400.00.

Progressive Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of PGR stock opened at $222.36 on Thursday. The Progressive Corporation has a twelve month low of $189.20 and a twelve month high of $249.83. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $216.64 and its 200 day simple moving average is $207.04. The company has a quick ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $129.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 0.27.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The insurance provider reported $5.67 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.64 by $1.03. Progressive had a return on equity of 32.92% and a net margin of 12.84%.The firm had revenue of $23.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.49 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $5.40 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that The Progressive Corporation will post 17.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 1st. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 2.01%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Progressive

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Giverny Capital Inc. increased its stake in Progressive by 2.6% in the second quarter. Giverny Capital Inc. now owns 542,292 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $118,464,000 after purchasing an additional 13,928 shares in the last quarter. Amundi boosted its position in shares of Progressive by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 1,678,390 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $366,644,000 after purchasing an additional 115,968 shares in the last quarter. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al bought a new position in shares of Progressive during the 2nd quarter worth about $106,822,000. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its stake in shares of Progressive by 23,059.4% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 199,767,282 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $43,639,163,000 after buying an additional 198,904,705 shares during the period. Finally, Ameritas Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in Progressive by 23.2% during the 2nd quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC now owns 3,733 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $815,000 after buying an additional 703 shares during the period. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on PGR shares. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $208.00 price target on shares of Progressive in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Progressive from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $190.00 to $210.00 in a research note on Friday, July 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Progressive from $250.00 to $241.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Progressive from $198.00 to $201.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 20th. Finally, Evercore set a $240.00 target price on Progressive in a report on Friday, July 10th. Seven 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 data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $236.05.

About Progressive

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.