Blue Trust Inc. Acquires 697 Shares of PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG)

Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG) by 35.4% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,664 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 697 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in PROG were worth $129,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Inspire Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of PROG by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC now owns 12,884 shares of the company’s stock worth $625,000 after buying an additional 525 shares during the period. nVerses Capital LLC raised its stake in PROG by 66.7% during the third quarter. nVerses Capital LLC now owns 3,500 shares of the company’s stock worth $170,000 after acquiring an additional 1,400 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning lifted its holdings in shares of PROG by 34.5% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 9,018 shares of the company’s stock valued at $437,000 after acquiring an additional 2,312 shares during the period. Ritholtz Wealth Management boosted its stake in shares of PROG by 18.9% in the 3rd quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 13,684 shares of the company’s stock valued at $664,000 after purchasing an additional 2,180 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Diversified Trust Co grew its holdings in shares of PROG by 7.1% in the 3rd quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 7,849 shares of the company’s stock worth $381,000 after purchasing an additional 520 shares during the last quarter. 97.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

PROG Stock Performance

PRG stock opened at $42.91 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $46.90 and a 200 day moving average price of $39.99. PROG Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $26.39 and a fifty-two week high of $50.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 3.87 and a quick ratio of 1.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.85 billion, a PE ratio of 17.51 and a beta of 2.11.

PROG (NYSE:PRG) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $606.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $601.86 million. PROG had a return on equity of 26.30% and a net margin of 4.57%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.90 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that PROG Holdings, Inc. will post 3.34 EPS for the current year.

PROG Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 20th were paid a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 20th. PROG’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 19.59%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on PRG shares. Raymond James raised shares of PROG from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, October 24th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on PROG from $40.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. KeyCorp raised their price target on PROG from $46.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on PROG from $50.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Loop Capital upgraded PROG from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $41.00 to $55.00 in a report on Monday, August 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.60.

PROG Company Profile

PROG Holdings, Inc (NYSE:PRG) is a financial technology holding company based in Salt Lake City, Utah with three business segments: Progressive Leasing, which offers lease-to-own transactions primarily to credit-challenged consumers through e-commerce and point-of-sale retail partners, via online, mobile, and in-store solutions; Vive Financial, which provides consumers who may not qualify for traditional prime lending with a variety of second-look, revolving credit products through private label and branded credit cards; and Four Technologies, which provides consumers of all credit backgrounds Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options through four interest-free installments via its platform, Four.