First National Trust Co Lowers Stock Position in The Progressive Corporation $PGR

First National Trust Co cut its holdings in The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) by 1.2% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 23,851 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 289 shares during the quarter. First National Trust Co’s holdings in Progressive were worth $6,365,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of PGR. Baron Silver Stevens Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Progressive during the 2nd quarter worth $306,000. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al purchased a new stake in Progressive during the second quarter worth about $13,583,000. Trust Co. of Oklahoma purchased a new stake in Progressive during the second quarter worth about $439,000. Belmont Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Progressive during the first quarter worth about $580,000. Finally, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI boosted its holdings in Progressive by 87.9% during the first quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI now owns 414,183 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $117,218,000 after buying an additional 193,800 shares in the last quarter. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Progressive

In related news, insider Lori A. Niederst sold 8,063 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.18, for a total transaction of $2,017,201.34. Following the transaction, the insider owned 39,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,767,027.20. This represents a 17.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider John Jo Murphy sold 2,218 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.78, for a total value of $556,230.04. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 45,724 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,466,664.72. This represents a 4.63% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 58,500 shares of company stock valued at $14,430,089. 0.34% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Cantor Fitzgerald raised Progressive to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on Progressive from $275.00 to $273.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Citigroup decreased their target price on Progressive from $312.00 to $301.38 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Zacks Research downgraded Progressive from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $214.00 price objective on shares of Progressive and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $268.90.

Progressive Stock Down 1.3%

Shares of NYSE:PGR opened at $216.29 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The Progressive Corporation has a 52-week low of $216.10 and a 52-week high of $292.99. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $240.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $255.91. The company has a market capitalization of $126.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.86, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 0.32.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 15th. The insurance provider reported $4.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $5.04 by ($0.59). The company had revenue of $21.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $21.64 billion. Progressive had a net margin of 12.57% and a return on equity of 33.88%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.58 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that The Progressive Corporation will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 2nd. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is presently 2.19%.

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.