Citizens & Northern Corp Acquires Shares of 925 The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Citizens & Northern Corp bought a new stake in shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 925 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $222,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Creative Planning increased its position in Progressive by 14.9% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 70,443 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $17,876,000 after purchasing an additional 9,114 shares during the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Progressive by 11.9% in the 3rd quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 3,070 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $779,000 after buying an additional 326 shares in the last quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Progressive by 34.8% in the third quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,434 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $364,000 after buying an additional 370 shares during the last quarter. New Century Financial Group LLC raised its position in Progressive by 7.4% during the third quarter. New Century Financial Group LLC now owns 1,980 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $502,000 after acquiring an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cyndeo Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Progressive in the third quarter valued at approximately $2,538,000. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PGR has been the topic of several analyst reports. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Progressive from $277.00 to $261.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Progressive from $251.00 to $256.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Raymond James raised Progressive from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 26th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Progressive from $273.00 to $267.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, HSBC lowered Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $267.00 target price for the company. in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Progressive currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $275.71.

Insider Activity at Progressive

In other news, insider Lori A. Niederst sold 3,855 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.06, for a total value of $952,416.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 39,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,645,222.40. This represents a 8.99 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.66, for a total value of $2,386,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 282,958 shares in the company, valued at approximately $67,530,756.28. This represents a 3.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 56,361 shares of company stock worth $13,983,575. 0.34% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Progressive Price Performance

Shares of Progressive stock opened at $262.71 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $244.97 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $247.54. The Progressive Co. has a fifty-two week low of $186.94 and a fifty-two week high of $270.62. 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 $153.90 billion, a PE ratio of 18.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 0.42.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The insurance provider reported $4.08 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.44 by $0.64. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.79% and a net margin of 11.25%. Analysts expect that The Progressive Co. will post 14.44 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 16th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 9th were given a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is presently 2.78%.

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.