Board of the Pension Protection Fund Takes Position in The Progressive Corporation $PGR

Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new stake in shares of The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 4,900 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,308,000.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in PGR. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Progressive during the 1st quarter valued at about $1,473,180,000. GQG Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Progressive by 61.4% during the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 8,346,133 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,362,039,000 after purchasing an additional 3,174,632 shares in the last quarter. C WorldWide Group Holding A S boosted its holdings in shares of Progressive by 12,110.3% in the first quarter. C WorldWide Group Holding A S now owns 1,248,628 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $353,374,000 after buying an additional 1,238,402 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Progressive by 15.2% in the first quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 8,263,157 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,338,556,000 after buying an additional 1,091,828 shares during the period. Finally, Axiom Investors LLC DE acquired a new position in shares of Progressive in the first quarter worth about $194,557,000. Institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Karen Bailo sold 8,922 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.24, for a total transaction of $2,223,719.28. Following the transaction, the insider owned 32,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,061,917.04. This trade represents a 21.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 16,664 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.24, for a total transaction of $4,153,335.36. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 228,024 shares in the company, valued at approximately $56,832,701.76. The trade was a 6.81% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 130,045 shares of company stock valued at $31,997,390. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on PGR shares. Barclays set a $271.00 target price on shares of Progressive in a report on Wednesday. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on shares of Progressive from $275.00 to $273.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Progressive from $268.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 18th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Progressive from $265.00 to $266.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Progressive from $268.00 to $261.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $279.63.

Progressive Stock Performance

PGR stock opened at $240.18 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a current ratio of 0.31. The stock has a market cap of $140.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.53, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.32. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $245.20 and a 200 day simple moving average of $259.65. The Progressive Corporation has a 52 week low of $228.54 and a 52 week high of $292.99.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 16th. The insurance provider reported $4.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.43 by $0.45. The firm had revenue of $20.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.39 billion. Progressive had a net margin of 12.66% and a return on equity of 35.37%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.48 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that The Progressive Corporation will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 2nd were given a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 2nd. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 2.25%.

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.