Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management Lowers Stake in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management cut its stake in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 32.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,547 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 735 shares during the quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management’s holdings in Progressive were worth $371,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Davis Capital Management bought a new position in Progressive in the third quarter worth about $25,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. raised its stake in shares of Progressive by 114.1% during the 3rd quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. now owns 137 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Kimelman & Baird LLC purchased a new stake in Progressive during the second quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new stake in Progressive in the third quarter valued at approximately $49,000. Finally, Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new position in Progressive in the third quarter worth $49,000. 85.34% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Progressive Price Performance

Shares of NYSE PGR opened at $246.25 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 0.30 and a quick ratio of 0.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $144.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.90, a PEG ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 0.41. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $247.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $244.25. The Progressive Co. has a 12 month low of $175.50 and a 12 month high of $270.62.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The insurance provider reported $4.08 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.44 by $0.64. Progressive had a net margin of 11.27% and a return on equity of 33.10%. Analysts expect that The Progressive Co. will post 13.51 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.09, for a total transaction of $2,680,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 292,958 shares in the company, valued at $78,539,110.22. This trade represents a 3.30 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Andrew J. Quigg sold 962 shares of the business’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 $234,044.98. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 34,787 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,463,329.23. The trade was a 2.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 42,506 shares of company stock worth $10,531,159. 0.34% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on PGR. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Progressive from $273.00 to $267.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Progressive from $277.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of Progressive from $197.00 to $237.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Progressive from $277.00 to $261.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Progressive from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. 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 target price of $274.65.

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.