The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) Shares Purchased by Harbour Investments Inc.

Harbour Investments Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 27.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 332 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 72 shares during the quarter. Harbour Investments Inc.’s holdings in Progressive were worth $80,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. LPL Financial LLC lifted its position in Progressive by 20.5% in the third quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 391,273 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $99,290,000 after buying an additional 66,628 shares during the last quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Progressive by 92.8% in the 3rd quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 39,098 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $10,225,000 after acquiring an additional 18,820 shares during the last quarter. Nwam LLC purchased a new position in shares of Progressive during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $929,000. Stonebrook Private Inc. acquired a new stake in Progressive in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $271,000. Finally, GenTrust LLC purchased a new stake in Progressive in the third quarter valued at approximately $246,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PGR has been the subject of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Progressive from $251.00 to $256.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Roth Mkm boosted their price target on shares of Progressive from $290.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of Progressive from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Raymond James raised shares of Progressive from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 26th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Progressive from $275.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 14th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $281.06.

Progressive Stock Down 0.6 %

PGR stock opened at $273.08 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $160.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.96, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.35. The company has a current ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The Progressive Co. has a twelve month low of $201.34 and a twelve month high of $292.99. The company’s 50 day moving average is $261.96 and its two-hundred day moving average is $255.01.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The insurance provider reported $4.08 EPS 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%. Research analysts expect that The Progressive Co. will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. Progressive’s payout ratio is currently 2.78%.

Insider Activity at Progressive

In other news, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.66, for a total value of $2,386,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 282,958 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $67,530,756.28. This represents a 3.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 9,066 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction on Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.10, for a total transaction of $2,194,878.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 473,736 shares in the company, valued at $114,691,485.60. The trade was a 1.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 65,495 shares of company stock valued at $16,668,034 in the last three months. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.