The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) Holdings Boosted by National Pension Service

National Pension Service grew its stake in shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 1.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 885,979 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 15,598 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service owned approximately 0.15% of Progressive worth $141,119,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in PGR. Everpar Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Progressive in the fourth quarter valued at $678,000. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC bought a new stake in Progressive in the 4th quarter valued at about $307,000. Balanced Wealth Group LLC acquired a new position in Progressive during the 4th quarter valued at about $532,000. Centric Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Progressive in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $219,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Progressive by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,509,705 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $559,026,000 after buying an additional 146,130 shares during the last quarter. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PGR has been the topic of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Progressive from $171.00 to $202.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Progressive from $216.00 to $218.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Roth Mkm raised their price objective on shares of Progressive from $215.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. HSBC upped their target price on Progressive from $174.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Progressive from $228.00 to $247.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Progressive currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $211.88.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Progressive news, Director Devin C. Johnson sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $208.33, for a total value of $208,330.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 7,176 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,494,976.08. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Progressive news, Director Devin C. Johnson sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $208.33, for a total transaction of $208,330.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 7,176 shares in the company, valued at $1,494,976.08. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Karen Bailo sold 8,464 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.49, for a total value of $1,603,843.36. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 32,342 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,128,485.58. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 39,139 shares of company stock worth $7,458,139. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Progressive Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:PGR traded up $0.44 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $215.90. The stock had a trading volume of 1,840,001 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,599,587. The Progressive Co. has a 12-month low of $111.41 and a 12-month high of $217.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a current ratio of 0.36. The company has a market cap of $126.45 billion, a PE ratio of 22.10, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.34. The company’s 50 day moving average is $205.21 and its 200-day moving average is $180.74.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 12th. The insurance provider reported $3.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.20 by $0.74. Progressive had a return on equity of 29.43% and a net margin of 8.89%. The firm had revenue of $18.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.88 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.65 earnings per share. Progressive’s quarterly revenue was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that The Progressive Co. will post 11.34 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 4th were paid a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 3rd. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 4.09%.

Progressive Profile

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.