Bank of America Cuts Progressive (NYSE:PGR) Price Target to $273.00

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) had its target price lowered by Bank of America from $279.00 to $273.00 in a report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. Bank of America currently has a buy rating on the insurance provider’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on PGR. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Progressive from $232.00 to $238.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. TD Cowen assumed coverage on Progressive in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. They set a market perform rating and a $174.00 price objective for the company. Piper Sandler reissued an overweight rating and set a $240.00 price objective on shares of Progressive in a research note on Monday, April 1st. Citigroup raised their price objective on Progressive from $202.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Roth Mkm raised their price objective on Progressive from $215.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $211.88.

Progressive Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE PGR opened at $214.69 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $199.92 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $175.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a current ratio of 0.36. The firm has a market cap of $125.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.97, a PEG ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 0.35. Progressive has a 1 year low of $111.41 and a 1 year high of $215.18.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 12th. The insurance provider reported $3.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.20 by $0.74. The firm had revenue of $18.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.88 billion. Progressive had a return on equity of 29.43% and a net margin of 8.89%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.65 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Progressive will post 11.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 4th were issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 3rd. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.19%. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is 4.09%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Devin C. Johnson sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $208.33, for a total transaction of $208,330.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,176 shares in the company, valued at $1,494,976.08. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, Director Devin C. Johnson sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $208.33, for a total transaction of $208,330.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,176 shares in the company, valued at $1,494,976.08. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Karen Bailo sold 8,464 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.49, for a total value of $1,603,843.36. Following the sale, the insider now owns 32,342 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,128,485.58. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 39,139 shares of company stock worth $7,458,139. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Progressive

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Indiana Trust & Investment Management CO bought a new position in Progressive during the first quarter valued at about $32,000. Sachetta LLC bought a new position in Progressive during the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Northwest Bank & Trust Co bought a new position in Progressive during the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in Progressive during the first quarter valued at about $35,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. raised its holdings in Progressive by 143.6% during the fourth quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 190 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 112 shares in the last quarter. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.