The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) Shares Sold by JARISLOWSKY FRASER Ltd

JARISLOWSKY FRASER Ltd lowered its stake in shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 29.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 95,856 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 39,743 shares during the quarter. JARISLOWSKY FRASER Ltd’s holdings in Progressive were worth $22,165,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of Progressive by 2,262.4% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 433,999 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $103,990,000 after purchasing an additional 415,628 shares during the last quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC grew its stake in Progressive by 42.3% in the fourth quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC now owns 11,889 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,849,000 after purchasing an additional 3,534 shares in the last quarter. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc increased its holdings in Progressive by 40.4% in the fourth quarter. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc now owns 238,250 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $57,132,000 after buying an additional 68,589 shares during the last quarter. Synergy Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Progressive by 100.3% during the fourth quarter. Synergy Asset Management LLC now owns 3,541 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $875,000 after buying an additional 1,773 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Archer Investment Corp lifted its holdings in Progressive by 295.1% during the 4th quarter. Archer Investment Corp now owns 2,102 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $504,000 after buying an additional 1,570 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PGR has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Roth Mkm boosted their price target on Progressive from $290.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Progressive from $324.00 to $328.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $288.00 price target on shares of Progressive in a report on Thursday, April 17th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Progressive from $267.00 to $287.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $287.65.

Insider Activity at Progressive

In other Progressive news, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.59, for a total value of $2,685,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 248,024 shares in the company, valued at $66,616,766.16. This trade represents a 3.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Patrick K. Callahan sold 4,669 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $279.70, for a total transaction of $1,305,919.30. Following the sale, the insider now owns 15,191 shares in the company, valued at $4,248,922.70. This represents a 23.51 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 39,894 shares of company stock worth $11,020,097 in the last quarter. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Progressive Stock Performance

Shares of PGR opened at $284.33 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.31 and a quick ratio of 0.30. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $275.16 and its 200-day moving average is $260.37. The Progressive Co. has a 12-month low of $201.34 and a 12-month high of $292.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $166.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.75, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.40.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 16th. The insurance provider reported $4.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.28 by $0.37. Progressive had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 33.79%. The firm had revenue of $22.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $21.87 billion. Equities research analysts anticipate that The Progressive Co. will post 14.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 3rd. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is 2.70%.

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.