Progressive (NYSE:PGR) Upgraded at Cantor Fitzgerald

Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Progressive (NYSE:PGR) to a hold rating in a research report released on Wednesday morning,Zacks.com reports. Cantor Fitzgerald also issued estimates for Progressive’s FY2025 earnings at $17.43 EPS and FY2026 earnings at $16.28 EPS.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of Progressive from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $275.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on shares of Progressive from $290.00 to $268.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Progressive from $275.00 to $265.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Finally, Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Progressive in a report on Wednesday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $312.00 target price for the company. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Progressive has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $284.88.

Progressive Trading Down 1.6%

Shares of PGR stock opened at $247.02 on Wednesday. Progressive has a 1 year low of $228.54 and a 1 year high of $292.99. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $253.14 and a 200-day moving average price of $266.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 0.31 and a quick ratio of 0.31. The company has a market cap of $144.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.92, a PEG ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.33.

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

Progressive Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is 2.25%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CIO Jonathan S. Bauer sold 2,391 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.24, for a total transaction of $595,932.84. Following the sale, the executive directly owned 26,698 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,654,209.52. This represents a 8.22% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 30,660 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.12, for a total transaction of $7,423,399.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 506,945 shares in the company, valued at $122,741,523.40. This represents a 5.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 112,313 shares of company stock worth $28,349,549. 0.34% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Progressive

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Progressive by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 54,516,288 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $14,548,217,000 after purchasing an additional 493,332 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Progressive by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,513,188 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $4,128,055,000 after purchasing an additional 301,371 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its position in Progressive by 32.8% in the 2nd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 10,972,574 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,928,141,000 after purchasing an additional 2,709,417 shares during the period. GQG Partners LLC raised its position in Progressive by 61.4% in the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 8,346,133 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,362,039,000 after purchasing an additional 3,174,632 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Progressive in the 2nd quarter worth about $2,156,939,000. 85.34% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.