Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Lowers Holdings in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky lowered its holdings in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 5.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 314,933 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 18,500 shares during the quarter. Progressive accounts for 0.7% of Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings, making the stock its 16th largest holding. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky owned 0.05% of Progressive worth $75,460,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of PGR. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its holdings in shares of Progressive by 63.8% in the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 35,093 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $8,409,000 after buying an additional 13,670 shares during the period. Landing Point Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Progressive during the fourth quarter worth about $453,000. Mirabella Financial Services LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Progressive during the fourth quarter worth about $10,365,000. MML Investors Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of Progressive by 46.7% in the fourth quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 69,859 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $16,739,000 after purchasing an additional 22,228 shares during the period. Finally, MetLife Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Progressive by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 176,761 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $42,354,000 after purchasing an additional 2,045 shares in the last quarter. 85.34% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently issued reports on PGR. UBS Group lifted their target price on Progressive from $275.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 14th. Roth Mkm upped their target price on shares of Progressive from $290.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Raymond James upgraded shares of Progressive from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, December 26th. StockNews.com cut shares of Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Progressive from $327.00 to $319.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 11th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $285.76.

Progressive Price Performance

Shares of PGR opened at $265.45 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $273.91 and its two-hundred day moving average is $257.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $155.62 billion, a PE ratio of 18.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.38. The Progressive Co. has a twelve month low of $201.34 and a twelve month high of $292.99.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 16th. The insurance provider reported $4.65 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.28 by $0.37. The company had revenue of $22.21 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $21.87 billion. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.79% and a net margin of 11.25%. Research analysts anticipate that The Progressive Co. will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd were issued a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.15%. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 2.70%.

Insider Transactions at Progressive

In other Progressive news, insider Andrew J. Quigg sold 962 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.29, for a total value of $234,044.98. Following the sale, the insider now owns 34,787 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,463,329.23. This represents a 2.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Mariann Wojtkun Marshall sold 585 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.29, for a total transaction of $142,324.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 3,983 shares in the company, valued at $969,024.07. This represents a 12.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 56,317 shares of company stock valued at $14,844,282 in the last quarter. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Progressive 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.