CENTRAL TRUST Co Buys 238 Shares of The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR)

CENTRAL TRUST Co boosted its stake in shares of The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) by 2.0% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 12,355 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 238 shares during the quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co’s holdings in Progressive were worth $3,496,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. QRG Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Progressive by 36.4% in the first quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 126,826 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $35,893,000 after acquiring an additional 33,864 shares in the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Progressive in the first quarter worth about $3,141,000. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in Progressive by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 16,199 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,881,000 after acquiring an additional 527 shares in the last quarter. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH boosted its holdings in Progressive by 498.5% in the first quarter. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH now owns 5,057 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,431,000 after acquiring an additional 4,212 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allstate Corp acquired a new stake in Progressive in the fourth quarter worth about $4,205,000. Institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PGR has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group raised their price target on Progressive from $285.00 to $291.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. Morgan Stanley set a $330.00 price target on Progressive and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. Roth Mkm lifted their target price on Progressive from $290.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Progressive from $267.00 to $287.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Progressive from $282.00 to $288.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Progressive has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $288.59.

Insider Activity at Progressive

In other news, CAO Carl G. Joyce sold 360 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.17, for a total value of $99,421.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 655 shares in the company, valued at $180,891.35. The trade was a 35.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.94, for a total value of $2,759,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 258,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $71,199,142.56. This trade represents a 3.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 34,517 shares of company stock worth $9,451,821. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Progressive Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of PGR stock opened at $265.55 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $276.09 and a 200 day moving average of $264.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The stock has a market cap of $155.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 0.40. The Progressive Corporation has a twelve month low of $204.88 and a twelve month high of $292.99.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 16th. The insurance provider reported $4.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.28 by $0.37. The company had revenue of $22.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $21.87 billion. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.50% and a net margin of 11.10%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that The Progressive Corporation will post 14.68 EPS for the current year.

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.