Vicus Capital Buys Shares of 1,391 The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Vicus Capital bought a new stake in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 1,391 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $333,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Progressive by 20.9% during the third quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 237 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the period. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Progressive by 54.7% during the fourth quarter. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 116 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the period. LRI Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Progressive by 16.5% during the third quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 296 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $76,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares during the period. SYM FINANCIAL Corp increased its stake in shares of Progressive by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. SYM FINANCIAL Corp now owns 1,602 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $384,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. Finally, Castleview Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Progressive by 2.7% during the third quarter. Castleview Partners LLC now owns 1,712 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $434,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. 85.34% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on PGR. Barclays lowered their target price on Progressive from $277.00 to $261.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on Progressive from $273.00 to $267.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Progressive from $302.00 to $313.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. TD Cowen increased their price target on Progressive from $197.00 to $237.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Progressive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $275.71.

Progressive Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE PGR opened at $262.71 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The Progressive Co. has a twelve month low of $186.94 and a twelve month high of $270.62. The company has a market cap of $153.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 0.42. The business’s fifty day moving average is $244.80 and its 200 day moving average is $246.75.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The insurance provider reported $4.08 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.44 by $0.64. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.79% and a net margin of 11.25%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that The Progressive Co. will post 14.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 16th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 9th were issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 2.78%.

Insider Activity at Progressive

In related news, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 11,021 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.29, for a total transaction of $2,681,299.09. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 473,736 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $115,255,231.44. This trade represents a 2.27 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Mariann Wojtkun Marshall sold 191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.10, for a total value of $46,241.10. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,982 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $964,042.20. This represents a 4.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 56,361 shares of company stock valued at $13,983,575 in the last 90 days. 0.34% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.