Range Financial Group LLC Buys New Stake in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Range Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 1,286 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $308,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Progressive by 1.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 24,683,807 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $6,263,763,000 after buying an additional 315,411 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Progressive by 13.2% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,425,792 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,652,235,000 after acquiring an additional 1,682,213 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Progressive by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 10,518,615 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,669,204,000 after acquiring an additional 170,618 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in shares of Progressive by 7.0% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,067,924 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,286,036,000 after purchasing an additional 330,667 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in Progressive by 1.9% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 4,922,743 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,022,507,000 after purchasing an additional 92,212 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. HSBC lowered shares of Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $267.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Hsbc Global Res lowered Progressive from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Progressive from $277.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised 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. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Progressive from $299.00 to $302.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Progressive has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $275.00.

Progressive Price Performance

Shares of PGR stock opened at $242.13 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $251.46 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $240.94. 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 Progressive Co. has a one year low of $162.35 and a one year high of $270.62. The company has a market capitalization of $141.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.60, a P/E/G ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 0.41.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 15th. The insurance provider reported $3.58 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.40 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $19.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.95 billion. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.10% and a net margin of 11.27%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that The Progressive Co. will post 13.2 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 9th will be issued a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.17%. Progressive’s payout ratio is currently 2.91%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.09, for a total value of $2,680,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 292,958 shares in the company, valued at approximately $78,539,110.22. The trade was a 3.30 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Andrew J. Quigg sold 681 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.10, for a total transaction of $164,870.10. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 33,612 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,137,465.20. This represents a 1.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 32,919 shares of company stock valued at $8,222,168 over the last three months. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.