Voleon Capital Management LP Takes Position in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Voleon Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 25,706 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $6,159,000.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Utah Retirement Systems raised its stake in shares of Progressive by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Utah Retirement Systems now owns 96,989 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $23,240,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Lido Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Progressive by 127.9% in the fourth quarter. Lido Advisors LLC now owns 23,466 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $5,623,000 after acquiring an additional 13,168 shares in the last quarter. Global Frontier Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Progressive in the fourth quarter valued at $43,609,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Progressive by 13.0% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,179,529 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,480,677,000 after buying an additional 710,684 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Marshfield Associates raised its stake in Progressive by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Marshfield Associates now owns 873,246 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $209,239,000 after buying an additional 3,025 shares in the last quarter. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Progressive news, Director Devin C. Johnson sold 400 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.04, for a total value of $110,016.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 8,370 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,302,084.80. This represents a 4.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Carl G. Joyce sold 360 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.17, for a total value of $99,421.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 655 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $180,891.35. The trade was a 35.47 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 43,749 shares of company stock valued at $11,972,513 over the last three months. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on PGR. Barclays raised their price target on Progressive from $285.00 to $297.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Roth Mkm raised their price target on Progressive from $290.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on Progressive from $327.00 to $319.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 11th. StockNews.com cut Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Progressive from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $312.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Progressive presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $287.41.

Progressive Price Performance

Shares of NYSE PGR opened at $276.37 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.31 and a quick ratio of 0.30. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $274.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $258.59. The Progressive Co. has a 1-year low of $201.34 and a 1-year high of $292.99. The company has a market cap of $162.02 billion, a PE ratio of 19.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.38.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 16th. The insurance provider reported $4.65 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $22.21 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $21.87 billion. Sell-side 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. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.14%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 3rd. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.