New York State Teachers Retirement System Increases Stock Holdings in The Progressive Corporation $PGR

New York State Teachers Retirement System lifted its stake in shares of The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 501,395 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 11,837 shares during the quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System owned about 0.09% of Progressive worth $123,819,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Citizens & Northern Corp boosted its stake in Progressive by 9.7% in the third quarter. Citizens & Northern Corp now owns 858 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $212,000 after acquiring an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Progressive by 15.5% in the 3rd quarter. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,858 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $459,000 after purchasing an additional 249 shares during the last quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Progressive by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC now owns 13,975 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $3,451,000 after purchasing an additional 231 shares during the last quarter. Forum Financial Management LP boosted its position in shares of Progressive by 9.3% in the 3rd quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 6,577 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,624,000 after purchasing an additional 557 shares during the period. Finally, Hidden Cove Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Progressive during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $200,000. 85.34% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PGR has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on Progressive from $250.00 to $237.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Progressive in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Progressive from $301.38 to $300.60 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 15th. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Progressive from $268.00 to $261.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, William Blair lowered Progressive from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $260.74.

Progressive Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:PGR opened at $214.97 on Friday. The Progressive Corporation has a 52 week low of $199.90 and a 52 week high of $292.99. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $223.26 and a 200 day moving average price of $235.96. The company has a market cap of $126.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.79, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.34. The company has a quick ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its earnings results 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 business had revenue of $21.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $21.64 billion. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.88% and a net margin of 12.57%.During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.58 EPS. Research analysts predict that The Progressive Corporation will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 2nd were issued a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 2nd. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 2.19%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Progressive

In related news, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $228.48, for a total transaction of $1,142,400.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 223,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,956,523.52. The trade was a 2.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Steven Broz sold 1,344 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.80, for a total transaction of $302,131.20. Following the transaction, the insider owned 26,354 shares in the company, valued at $5,924,379.20. The trade was a 4.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 9,034 shares of company stock worth $2,047,481 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Progressive Profile

Progressive Corporation is a large U.S.-based property and casualty insurer that primarily underwrites personal auto insurance along with a broad suite of related products. Its offerings include coverage for private passenger automobiles, commercial auto fleets, motorcycles, boats and recreational vehicles, as well as homeowners, renters, umbrella and other specialty P&C products. Progressive also provides claims handling, risk management and related services to individual and commercial policyholders.

The company distributes its products through a mix of direct channels—online and by phone—and an extensive independent agent network.