Short Interest in PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG) Expands By 24.4%

PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,500,000 shares, an increase of 24.4% from the March 15th total of 2,010,000 shares. Approximately 6.3% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 563,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.4 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on PRG shares. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of PROG from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $58.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on shares of PROG in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $49.00.

Insider Activity at PROG

In other news, Director Douglas C. Curling acquired 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The stock was bought at an average cost of $29.88 per share, with a total value of $298,800.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 45,913 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,371,880.44. This represents a 27.85 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Caroline Sio-Chin Sheu purchased 1,650 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $28.01 per share, for a total transaction of $46,216.50. Following the purchase, the director now owns 18,291 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $512,330.91. This represents a 9.92 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 3.21% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On PROG

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of PROG by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,937,208 shares of the company’s stock worth $208,646,000 after purchasing an additional 76,810 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in PROG by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,564,441 shares of the company’s stock valued at $108,373,000 after buying an additional 134,123 shares during the period. Allianz Asset Management GmbH raised its position in shares of PROG by 36.8% during the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 779,716 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,951,000 after buying an additional 209,805 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in shares of PROG by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 562,539 shares of the company’s stock valued at $23,773,000 after acquiring an additional 9,162 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of PROG by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 517,984 shares of the company’s stock valued at $21,890,000 after acquiring an additional 33,991 shares during the period. 97.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

PROG Price Performance

PRG opened at $25.70 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.66 and a beta of 1.96. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $28.25 and its 200 day moving average price is $39.07. PROG has a fifty-two week low of $23.50 and a fifty-two week high of $50.28. The company has a quick ratio of 2.34, a current ratio of 5.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99.

PROG (NYSE:PRG) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $623.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $612.67 million. PROG had a return on equity of 24.25% and a net margin of 8.01%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.72 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that PROG will post 3.45 earnings per share for the current year.

PROG Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 25th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 13th were issued a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 13th. This is a boost from PROG’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. PROG’s payout ratio is 11.45%.

PROG Company Profile

PROG Holdings, Inc (NYSE:PRG) is a financial technology holding company based in Salt Lake City, Utah with three business segments: Progressive Leasing, which offers lease-to-own transactions primarily to credit-challenged consumers through e-commerce and point-of-sale retail partners, via online, mobile, and in-store solutions; Vive Financial, which provides consumers who may not qualify for traditional prime lending with a variety of second-look, revolving credit products through private label and branded credit cards; and Four Technologies, which provides consumers of all credit backgrounds Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options through four interest-free installments via its platform, Four.