IFP Advisors Inc Boosts Position in The Progressive Corporation $PGR

IFP Advisors Inc raised its stake in shares of The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) by 11.7% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 5,385 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 563 shares during the quarter. IFP Advisors Inc’s holdings in Progressive were worth $1,480,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Progressive in the first quarter worth approximately $1,473,180,000. GQG Partners LLC lifted its position in Progressive by 61.4% in the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 8,346,133 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,362,039,000 after purchasing an additional 3,174,632 shares during the last quarter. C WorldWide Group Holding A S lifted its position in Progressive by 12,110.3% in the first 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 purchasing an additional 1,238,402 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its position in Progressive by 15.2% in the first quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 8,263,157 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,338,556,000 after purchasing an additional 1,091,828 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Axiom Investors LLC DE bought a new stake in Progressive in the first quarter valued at approximately $194,557,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Lori A. Niederst sold 8,063 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.18, for a total value of $2,017,201.34. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 39,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,767,027.20. This represents a 17.12% 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 link. Also, insider Steven Broz sold 1,345 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.10, for a total value of $325,624.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 30,388 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,356,934.80. The trade was a 4.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 130,045 shares of company stock valued at $31,997,390 over the last 90 days. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Progressive Price Performance

Shares of PGR stock opened at $240.18 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $140.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.53, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.32. The business’s fifty day moving average is $245.20 and its 200 day moving average is $259.54. The Progressive Corporation has a twelve month low of $228.54 and a twelve month high of $292.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21.

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

Progressive Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 2nd were paid a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 2nd. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is presently 2.25%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on PGR. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Progressive from $267.00 to $265.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Barclays set a $271.00 target price on Progressive in a report on Wednesday. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on Progressive from $275.00 to $273.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. UBS Group decreased their target price on Progressive from $268.00 to $261.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Progressive to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $279.63.

Progressive Company 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.