Second Line Capital LLC Buys 2,376 Shares of The Progressive Corporation $PGR

Second Line Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) by 17.0% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 16,326 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,376 shares during the quarter. Second Line Capital LLC’s holdings in Progressive were worth $3,566,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in PGR. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its holdings in Progressive by 23,059.4% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 199,767,282 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $43,639,163,000 after purchasing an additional 198,904,705 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Progressive during the 2nd quarter valued at $10,496,271,000. State Street Corp raised its stake in Progressive by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 25,808,762 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $6,373,474,000 after buying an additional 78,374 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Progressive by 8.9% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 14,921,724 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $3,398,123,000 after buying an additional 1,217,527 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in shares of Progressive during the 2nd quarter valued at $2,682,342,000. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on PGR shares. HSBC lifted their price objective on Progressive from $214.00 to $221.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, July 6th. Weiss Ratings raised Progressive from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Friday, August 28th. William Blair restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Progressive in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Progressive from $198.00 to $201.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 20th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Progressive in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $236.26.

Insider Activity at Progressive

In other Progressive news, Director Jeffrey D. Kelly sold 7,000 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $216.33, for a total transaction of $1,514,310.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 22,546 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,877,376.18. The trade was a 23.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider John Murphy sold 8,124 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $212.70, for a total transaction of $1,727,974.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 41,291 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,782,595.70. The trade was a 16.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 113,714 shares of company stock worth $24,466,294 in the last quarter. 0.32% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Progressive Trading Down 0.2%

NYSE:PGR opened at $218.41 on Tuesday. The Progressive Corporation has a one year low of $189.20 and a one year high of $249.71. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $217.55 and a 200-day moving average price of $207.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $126.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 0.29 and a quick ratio of 0.29.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The insurance provider reported $5.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.64 by $1.03. Progressive had a return on equity of 32.92% and a net margin of 12.84%.The company had revenue of $23.61 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.49 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $5.40 earnings per share. Progressive’s quarterly revenue was up 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that The Progressive Corporation will post 17.74 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 9th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 1st will be given a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 1st. Progressive’s payout ratio is presently 2.01%.

Progressive Company Profile

Progressive Corporation is a large U.S.-based property and casualty insurer that primarily underwrites personal auto insurance along with a broad suite of related products. Its offerings include coverage for private passenger automobiles, commercial auto fleets, motorcycles, boats and recreational vehicles, as well as homeowners, renters, umbrella and other specialty P&C products. Progressive also provides claims handling, risk management and related services to individual and commercial policyholders.

The company distributes its products through a mix of direct channels—online and by phone—and an extensive independent agent network.