Childress Capital Advisors LLC Boosts Stake in The Progressive Corporation $PGR

Childress Capital Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) by 5.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,268 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 61 shares during the quarter. Childress Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Progressive were worth $338,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Progressive in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,473,180,000. GQG Partners LLC raised its holdings in Progressive by 61.4% in the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 8,346,133 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,362,039,000 after acquiring an additional 3,174,632 shares during the last quarter. C WorldWide Group Holding A S raised its holdings in Progressive by 12,110.3% in the 1st quarter. C WorldWide Group Holding A S now owns 1,248,628 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $353,374,000 after acquiring an additional 1,238,402 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its holdings in Progressive by 15.2% in the 1st quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 8,263,157 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,338,556,000 after acquiring an additional 1,091,828 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Axiom Investors LLC DE acquired a new stake in Progressive in the 1st quarter valued at about $194,557,000. 85.34% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Steven Broz sold 1,345 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.10, for a total value of $325,624.50. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 30,388 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,356,934.80. This trade represents a 4.24% 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, insider John Jo Murphy sold 2,218 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.10, for a total transaction of $536,977.80. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 43,506 shares in the company, valued at $10,532,802.60. The trade was a 4.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 130,045 shares of company stock worth $31,997,390. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on PGR. Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Progressive in a research note on Friday, August 29th. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Progressive from $287.00 to $281.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of Progressive from $268.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 18th. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Progressive from $280.00 to $268.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on shares of Progressive from $309.00 to $287.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $279.63.

Progressive Stock Performance

Shares of PGR stock opened at $246.73 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The Progressive Corporation has a 52 week low of $228.54 and a 52 week high of $292.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $144.64 billion, a PE ratio of 13.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 0.32. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $245.31 and a two-hundred day moving average of $261.43.

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

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 2nd will be given a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 2nd. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 2.25%.

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.