UBS Group Boosts Progressive (NYSE:PGR) Price Target to $285.00

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) had its price target upped by equities researchers at UBS Group from $275.00 to $285.00 in a research report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “neutral” rating on the insurance provider’s stock. UBS Group’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 0.40% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Progressive from $333.00 to $318.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Roth Mkm boosted their price objective on shares of Progressive from $290.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Progressive from $251.00 to $256.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on shares of Progressive from $295.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Raymond James raised shares of Progressive from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 26th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $281.76.

Progressive Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of PGR opened at $283.87 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a current ratio of 0.31. Progressive has a fifty-two week low of $201.34 and a fifty-two week high of $287.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $166.41 billion, a PE ratio of 19.71, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.35. The company’s fifty day moving average is $258.14 and its 200 day moving average is $254.03.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The insurance provider reported $4.08 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.44 by $0.64. Progressive had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 33.79%. Sell-side analysts expect that Progressive will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Progressive news, insider Andrew J. Quigg sold 681 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.10, for a total value of $164,870.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 33,612 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,137,465.20. The trade was a 1.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 11,021 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.29, for a total transaction of $2,681,299.09. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 473,736 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $115,255,231.44. This represents a 2.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 62,257 shares of company stock valued at $15,752,781 over the last three months. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Progressive

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Progressive by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 53,400,366 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $12,795,262,000 after acquiring an additional 583,376 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Progressive by 1.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 24,683,807 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $6,263,763,000 after acquiring an additional 315,411 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Progressive by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,615,430 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $3,498,363,000 after acquiring an additional 189,638 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Progressive by 1.6% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 10,518,615 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,669,204,000 after acquiring an additional 170,618 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Progressive during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,843,045,000. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.