Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management Grows Position in The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR)

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management boosted its position in shares of The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) by 170.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,190 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,643 shares during the quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management’s holdings in Progressive were worth $1,186,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in Progressive by 15.6% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 3,392 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $813,000 after purchasing an additional 457 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Progressive during the 4th quarter worth approximately $269,000. Highview Capital Management LLC DE increased its holdings in Progressive by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE now owns 11,040 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,645,000 after acquiring an additional 339 shares in the last quarter. Westpac Banking Corp increased its stake in shares of Progressive by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Westpac Banking Corp now owns 13,671 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,276,000 after purchasing an additional 274 shares in the last quarter. Finally, World Investment Advisors boosted its holdings in Progressive by 103.4% in the 4th quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 6,726 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,612,000 after buying an additional 3,419 shares during the last quarter. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on PGR. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Progressive from $288.00 to $281.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 18th. Barclays cut their price target on Progressive from $297.00 to $287.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on Progressive from $290.00 to $268.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Progressive from $290.00 to $280.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered shares of Progressive from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $275.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $286.88.

Progressive Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of NYSE PGR opened at $240.98 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $260.21 and a 200 day moving average price of $266.02. The Progressive Corporation has a 52 week low of $208.13 and a 52 week high of $292.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $141.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 0.33.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 16th. The insurance provider reported $4.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.43 by $0.45. Progressive had a return on equity of 35.37% and a net margin of 12.66%. The firm had revenue of $20.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $20.39 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.48 earnings per share. Progressive’s revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that The Progressive Corporation will post 14.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 11th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 4th were given a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a yield of 15.0%. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 2.25%.

Insider Activity at Progressive

In other news, insider Karen Bailo sold 8,922 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.24, for a total transaction of $2,223,719.28. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 32,346 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,061,917.04. The trade was a 21.62% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 16,664 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.24, for a total value of $4,153,335.36. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 228,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $56,832,701.76. This represents a 6.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 104,250 shares of company stock valued at $26,332,348 in the last ninety days. 0.34% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.