The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) CFO John P. Sauerland Sells 10,000 Shares

The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.59, for a total transaction of $2,685,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 248,024 shares in the company, valued at approximately $66,616,766.16. The trade was a 3.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Progressive Stock Up 2.5 %

NYSE PGR opened at $276.37 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a current ratio of 0.31. The Progressive Co. has a 52 week low of $201.34 and a 52 week high of $292.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $162.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.38. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $274.29 and a 200-day moving average of $258.59.

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

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd were given a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.14%. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is currently 2.70%.

Institutional Trading of Progressive

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Progressive by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 53,400,366 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $12,795,262,000 after purchasing an additional 583,376 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Progressive by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,615,430 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,498,363,000 after purchasing an additional 189,638 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Progressive in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,843,045,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of Progressive by 13.0% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,179,529 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,480,677,000 after buying an additional 710,684 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors grew its holdings in shares of Progressive by 34.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 6,058,187 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,451,602,000 after buying an additional 1,547,677 shares in the last quarter. 85.34% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PGR has been the topic of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Progressive from $320.00 to $324.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. StockNews.com cut Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Progressive from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Barclays increased their price objective on Progressive from $285.00 to $297.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Progressive from $282.00 to $288.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $287.41.

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.