Whitaker Myers Wealth Managers LTD. Purchases 1,595 Shares of The Progressive Corporation $PGR

Whitaker Myers Wealth Managers LTD. grew its position in The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) by 51.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 4,669 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,595 shares during the quarter. Whitaker Myers Wealth Managers LTD.’s holdings in Progressive were worth $1,246,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of PGR. State of Alaska Department of Revenue boosted its position in shares of Progressive by 2.7% during the first quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 68,644 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $19,426,000 after acquiring an additional 1,800 shares during the last quarter. Belmont Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Progressive during the first quarter worth $580,000. QRG Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Progressive by 36.4% during the first quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 126,826 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $35,893,000 after acquiring an additional 33,864 shares during the last quarter. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH boosted its position in shares of Progressive by 498.5% during the first quarter. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH now owns 5,057 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,431,000 after acquiring an additional 4,212 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hennessy Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Progressive during the first quarter worth $3,141,000. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on PGR. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Progressive from $344.00 to $347.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Progressive from $309.00 to $287.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Evercore ISI lowered shares of Progressive from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $275.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Progressive from $330.00 to $327.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Progressive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $284.82.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Steven Broz sold 1,345 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.78, for a total value of $337,299.10. Following the sale, the insider owned 31,733 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,958,001.74. This represents a 4.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 30,659 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.06, for a total transaction of $7,543,953.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 476,286 shares in the company, valued at approximately $117,194,933.16. This represents a 6.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 139,010 shares of company stock valued at $34,547,699. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Progressive Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of PGR opened at $248.29 on Friday. The Progressive Corporation has a twelve month low of $228.54 and a twelve month high of $292.99. The company has a market cap of $145.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.99, a P/E/G ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.32. The company has a current ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $246.44 and its 200-day simple moving average is $264.68.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 16th. The insurance provider reported $4.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.43 by $0.45. Progressive had a net margin of 12.66% and a return on equity of 35.37%. The business had revenue of $20.08 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.39 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.48 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that The Progressive Corporation will post 14.68 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 2nd will be paid a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 2nd. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is currently 2.25%.

About Progressive

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.