Pathstone Holdings LLC Purchases 117,115 Shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Pathstone Holdings LLC lifted its position in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 41.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 398,020 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 117,115 shares during the quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC’s holdings in Progressive were worth $95,367,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Webster Bank N. A. purchased a new position in Progressive in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Hager Investment Management Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Progressive during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Progressive by 54.7% during the fourth quarter. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 116 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Minot DeBlois Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Progressive in the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. boosted its position in shares of Progressive by 3,000.0% during the fourth quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 124 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on PGR shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Progressive from $324.00 to $328.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on Progressive from $327.00 to $319.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 11th. StockNews.com raised Progressive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Bank of America raised Progressive from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $312.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on Progressive from $275.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 14th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $287.65.

Progressive Stock Performance

NYSE PGR opened at $283.38 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $275.17 and its 200-day moving average price is $260.88. The Progressive Co. has a fifty-two week low of $201.34 and a fifty-two week high of $292.99. The company has a market cap of $166.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.40. 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 (NYSE:PGR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 16th. The insurance provider reported $4.65 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.28 by $0.37. Progressive had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 33.79%. The company had revenue of $22.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $21.87 billion. Sell-side analysts predict that The Progressive Co. will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.14%. Progressive’s payout ratio is 2.70%.

Insider Activity at Progressive

In other Progressive news, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $279.94, for a total value of $2,799,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 269,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $75,462,306.04. This trade represents a 3.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Devin C. Johnson sold 400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.04, for a total value of $110,016.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 8,370 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,302,084.80. This trade represents a 4.56% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 39,894 shares of company stock worth $11,020,097. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Progressive 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.