Verde Capital Management Purchases 3,595 Shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Verde Capital Management raised its position in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 71.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,594 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,595 shares during the quarter. Verde Capital Management’s holdings in Progressive were worth $2,432,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Hager Investment Management Services LLC bought a new position in Progressive in the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Minot DeBlois Advisors LLC bought a new position in Progressive in the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Progressive by 54.7% in the fourth quarter. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 116 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. raised its position in Progressive by 3,000.0% in the fourth quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 124 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Atala Financial Inc bought a new position in Progressive in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. Bank of America upgraded Progressive from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $312.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Progressive from $324.00 to $328.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Roth Mkm raised their price objective on Progressive from $290.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Progressive from $267.00 to $287.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $330.00 price objective on Progressive and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Progressive has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $288.59.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Patrick K. Callahan sold 4,669 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $279.70, for a total transaction of $1,305,919.30. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 15,191 shares in the company, valued at $4,248,922.70. The trade was a 23.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.94, for a total value of $2,759,400.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 258,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $71,199,142.56. This represents a 3.73% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 43,651 shares of company stock worth $12,017,780 over the last quarter. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Progressive Trading Up 2.7%

NYSE PGR opened at $284.82 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $275.72 and a 200 day simple moving average of $263.53. The Progressive Co. has a one year low of $201.34 and a one year high of $292.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $166.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.31 and a quick ratio of 0.30.

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

Progressive Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. 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 2.70%.

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.