Advisors Capital Management LLC Sells 230 Shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Advisors Capital Management LLC lessened its holdings in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 4.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 4,959 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 230 shares during the quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Progressive were worth $1,188,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in shares of Progressive in the third quarter valued at approximately $55,000. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in Progressive during the 3rd quarter valued at $2,566,000. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Progressive by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 8,054 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,044,000 after acquiring an additional 171 shares during the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Progressive by 55.0% in the 3rd quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 1,583 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $402,000 after acquiring an additional 562 shares in the last quarter. Finally, World Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Progressive by 99.0% in the third quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,307 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $839,000 after purchasing an additional 1,645 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Progressive from $275.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 14th. StockNews.com lowered Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Progressive from $267.00 to $287.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Roth Mkm raised their target price on Progressive from $290.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price target on shares of Progressive from $300.00 to $288.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $283.71.

Progressive Stock Performance

Shares of PGR stock opened at $278.85 on Tuesday. The Progressive Co. has a 12 month low of $201.34 and a 12 month high of $292.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $163.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.36, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a current ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $272.44 and its 200 day moving average is $257.43.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The insurance provider reported $4.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.44 by $0.64. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.79% and a net margin of 11.25%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that The Progressive Co. will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.14%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 3rd. Progressive’s payout ratio is presently 2.78%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Carl G. Joyce sold 360 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.17, for a total transaction of $99,421.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 655 shares in the company, valued at $180,891.35. The trade was a 35.47 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Andrew J. Quigg sold 962 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.29, for a total value of $234,044.98. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 34,787 shares in the company, valued at $8,463,329.23. This trade represents a 2.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 56,317 shares of company stock worth $14,844,282 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

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.