Allstate Corp Acquires New Position in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Allstate Corp bought a new position in shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm bought 17,549 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $4,205,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. RiverFront Investment Group LLC raised its position in shares of Progressive by 8.1% during the 4th quarter. RiverFront Investment Group LLC now owns 971 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $233,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Horizon Investment Services LLC increased its stake in Progressive by 24.7% during the fourth quarter. Horizon Investment Services LLC now owns 17,506 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $4,195,000 after purchasing an additional 3,462 shares during the last quarter. DnB Asset Management AS raised its holdings in shares of Progressive by 42.8% during the fourth quarter. DnB Asset Management AS now owns 146,592 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $35,125,000 after purchasing an additional 43,937 shares during the period. Alerus Financial NA bought a new position in shares of Progressive in the 4th quarter worth about $4,130,000. Finally, Level Four Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Progressive by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. Level Four Advisory Services LLC now owns 2,624 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $629,000 after buying an additional 151 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Progressive

In other news, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.66, for a total transaction of $2,386,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 282,958 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $67,530,756.28. This represents a 3.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Devin C. Johnson sold 400 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.04, for a total value of $110,016.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 8,370 shares in the company, valued at $2,302,084.80. This represents a 4.56 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 66,255 shares of company stock valued at $16,877,471 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PGR has been the topic of several research reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Progressive from $300.00 to $307.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James raised Progressive from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, December 26th. HSBC downgraded Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $267.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Barclays upped their price objective on Progressive from $264.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, Roth Mkm raised their target price on Progressive from $290.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $281.06.

Progressive Stock Performance

PGR opened at $279.13 on Friday. The Progressive Co. has a 1-year low of $201.34 and a 1-year high of $292.99. The company has a market capitalization of $163.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.35. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $265.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $255.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.31 and a quick ratio of 0.30.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The insurance provider reported $4.08 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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%. Research analysts predict that The Progressive Co. will post 14.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. 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.