Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA Sells 18,316 Shares of The Progressive Corporation $PGR

Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA cut its stake in The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) by 90.8% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,851 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 18,316 shares during the period. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA’s holdings in Progressive were worth $494,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Progressive by 1.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 54,022,956 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $15,289,037,000 after purchasing an additional 622,590 shares during the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC grew its holdings in Progressive by 61.4% during the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 8,346,133 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,362,039,000 after acquiring an additional 3,174,632 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its holdings in Progressive by 15.2% during the 1st quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 8,263,157 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,338,556,000 after acquiring an additional 1,091,828 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its holdings in Progressive by 6.6% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 6,380,134 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,805,642,000 after acquiring an additional 396,567 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Progressive during the 1st quarter worth about $1,473,180,000. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PGR has been the topic of several recent research reports. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on shares of Progressive from $275.00 to $273.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Progressive from $312.00 to $301.38 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Progressive from $266.00 to $246.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, September 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Progressive from $252.00 to $247.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $270.40.

Progressive Stock Down 0.9%

NYSE:PGR opened at $220.52 on Friday. The Progressive Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $217.20 and a fifty-two week high of $292.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $129.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a current ratio of 0.32. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $241.66 and its 200-day simple moving average is $256.70.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 15th. The insurance provider reported $4.45 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.04 by ($0.59). Progressive had a net margin of 12.57% and a return on equity of 33.88%. The firm had revenue of $21.38 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $21.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.58 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that The Progressive Corporation will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 2nd were paid a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 2nd. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 2.19%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 30,659 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.06, for a total value of $7,543,953.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 476,286 shares in the company, valued at $117,194,933.16. This trade represents a 6.05% decrease in their position. The transaction 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 Progressive stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.10, for a total transaction of $325,624.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 30,388 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,356,934.80. This trade represents a 4.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 128,778 shares of company stock worth $31,683,756 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

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.