Cooper Financial Group Reduces Position in The Progressive Corporation $PGR

Cooper Financial Group trimmed its position in The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) by 5.2% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,709 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 203 shares during the quarter. Cooper Financial Group’s holdings in Progressive were worth $990,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Baron Silver Stevens Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Progressive in the second quarter worth about $306,000. State of Alaska Department of Revenue increased its position in shares of Progressive by 2.7% in the first quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 68,644 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $19,426,000 after purchasing an additional 1,800 shares during the last quarter. Trust Co. of Oklahoma bought a new position in shares of Progressive in the second quarter worth approximately $439,000. Belmont Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Progressive in the first quarter worth approximately $580,000. Finally, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI increased its position in shares of Progressive by 87.9% in the first quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI now owns 414,183 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $117,218,000 after purchasing an additional 193,800 shares during the last quarter. 85.34% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on PGR. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Progressive from $280.00 to $268.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 21st. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $265.00 price target (down from $327.00) on shares of Progressive in a research report on Thursday, September 18th. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on shares of Progressive from $275.00 to $273.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, September 21st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of Progressive from $268.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 18th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $279.63.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Progressive news, insider Lori A. Niederst sold 8,063 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.18, for a total transaction of $2,017,201.34. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 39,040 shares in the company, valued at $9,767,027.20. The trade was a 17.12% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Jo Murphy sold 2,218 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.10, for a total value of $536,977.80. Following the sale, the insider owned 43,506 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,532,802.60. This represents a 4.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 130,045 shares of company stock worth $31,997,390 in the last three months. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Progressive Stock Performance

NYSE:PGR opened at $246.73 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $144.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 0.32. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $245.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $261.43. The Progressive Corporation has a twelve month low of $228.54 and a twelve month high of $292.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 16th. The insurance provider reported $4.88 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.43 by $0.45. The business had revenue of $20.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.39 billion. Progressive had a return on equity of 35.37% and a net margin of 12.66%.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 posted $2.48 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that The Progressive Corporation will post 14.68 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

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

Progressive Company 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.