JPMorgan Chase & Co. Increases Progressive (NYSE:PGR) Price Target to $303.00

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) had its target price upped by equities research analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $301.00 to $303.00 in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the insurance provider’s stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s target price would suggest a potential upside of 26.16% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on the company. Bank of America upped their price objective on Progressive from $343.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 29th. Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on Progressive from $275.00 to $273.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Progressive from $268.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 18th. Wall Street Zen lowered Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, September 21st. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on Progressive from $268.00 to $261.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $279.63.

Progressive Trading Down 0.8%

NYSE:PGR opened at $240.18 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 0.31 and a quick ratio of 0.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $140.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.32. Progressive has a one year low of $228.54 and a one year high of $292.99. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $245.20 and a 200-day moving average price of $259.74.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 16th. The insurance provider reported $4.88 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.43 by $0.45. Progressive had a return on equity of 35.37% and a net margin of 12.66%.The firm had revenue of $20.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.39 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.48 EPS. Progressive’s revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Progressive will post 14.68 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 30,660 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.12, for a total value of $7,423,399.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 506,945 shares in the company, valued at approximately $122,741,523.40. This trade represents a 5.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Lori A. Niederst sold 8,063 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.18, for a total value of $2,017,201.34. Following the completion of 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 130,045 shares of company stock valued at $31,997,390 in the last quarter. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PGR. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Progressive in the second quarter worth about $2,156,939,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Progressive in the first quarter worth about $1,473,180,000. GQG Partners LLC lifted its stake in Progressive by 61.4% in the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 8,346,133 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,362,039,000 after purchasing an additional 3,174,632 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its stake in Progressive by 32.8% in the second quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 10,972,574 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,928,141,000 after purchasing an additional 2,709,417 shares during the last quarter. Finally, C WorldWide Group Holding A S lifted its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 1,238,402 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

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.