AdvisorNet Financial Inc Sells 50 Shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

AdvisorNet Financial Inc cut its position in shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 9.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 506 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 50 shares during the quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc’s holdings in Progressive were worth $121,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Progressive by 20.9% in the 3rd quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 237 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $60,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. LRI Investments LLC increased its position in 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 acquiring an additional 42 shares during the period. Castleview Partners LLC raised its stake in Progressive by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Castleview Partners LLC now owns 1,712 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $434,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Washington Trust Bank boosted its holdings in Progressive by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. Washington Trust Bank now owns 1,024 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $260,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. Finally, Sunbelt Securities Inc. grew its position in shares of Progressive by 21.3% during the 2nd quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 262 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $54,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Progressive

In other news, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 9,066 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.10, for a total value of $2,194,878.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 473,736 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $114,691,485.60. The trade was a 1.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Steven Broz sold 2,981 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $251.15, for a total value of $748,678.15. Following the sale, the insider now owns 26,353 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,618,555.95. The trade was a 10.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 32,919 shares of company stock valued at $8,222,168. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on PGR. Raymond James upgraded Progressive from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 26th. Hsbc Global Res cut Progressive from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. TD Cowen increased their target price on Progressive from $197.00 to $237.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Barclays decreased their price target on Progressive from $277.00 to $261.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Progressive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $275.24.

Progressive Stock Performance

NYSE PGR opened at $243.79 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $142.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.72, a PEG ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a quick ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The Progressive Co. has a twelve month low of $166.92 and a twelve month high of $270.62. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $250.53 and a 200 day simple moving average of $242.03.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The insurance provider reported $3.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.40 by $0.18. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.10% and a net margin of 11.27%. The company had revenue of $19.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $18.95 billion. Sell-side analysts expect that The Progressive Co. will post 13.52 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 9th were given a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is presently 2.91%.

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.