Progressive (NYSE:PGR) Price Target Raised to $350.00

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) had its price objective upped by Bank of America from $343.00 to $350.00 in a research report released on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. Bank of America currently has a buy rating on the insurance provider’s stock.

Several other analysts also recently commented on PGR. BMO Capital Markets set a $252.00 price target on shares of Progressive in a research report on Thursday, September 18th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Progressive from $280.00 to $268.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, September 21st. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $265.00 price objective (down from $327.00) on shares of Progressive in a research note on Thursday, September 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Progressive from $267.00 to $265.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $279.63.

Progressive Stock Down 0.1%

Progressive stock opened at $246.73 on Monday. Progressive has a 1-year low of $228.54 and a 1-year high of $292.99. 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 stock has a market cap of $144.64 billion, a PE ratio of 13.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 0.32. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $245.31 and its two-hundred day moving average is $261.43.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 16th. The insurance provider reported $4.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.43 by $0.45. The business had revenue of $20.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.39 billion. Progressive had a net margin of 12.66% and a return on equity of 35.37%. The company’s revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.48 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Progressive will post 14.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Progressive

In related news, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 16,664 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.24, for a total transaction of $4,153,335.36. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 228,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $56,832,701.76. This represents a 6.81% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 30,660 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.12, for a total transaction of $7,423,399.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 506,945 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $122,741,523.40. This trade represents a 5.70% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 130,045 shares of company stock worth $31,997,390. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Progressive

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of PGR. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Progressive in the second quarter valued at approximately $2,156,939,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Progressive in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,473,180,000. GQG Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Progressive by 61.4% during the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 8,346,133 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,362,039,000 after buying an additional 3,174,632 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its position in shares of Progressive by 32.8% during the second quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 10,972,574 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,928,141,000 after buying an additional 2,709,417 shares in the last quarter. Finally, C WorldWide Group Holding A S grew its position in shares of Progressive by 12,110.3% during 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 buying an additional 1,238,402 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.34% 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.