Traders Buy Large Volume of Put Options on PROG (NYSE:PRG)

PROG Holdings, Inc (NYSE:PRG) saw some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock investors acquired 17,447 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 20,670% compared to the typical daily volume of 84 put options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other PROG news, insider Michael King sold 1,070 shares of PROG stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.00, for a total value of $49,220.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 60,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,797,950. The trade was a 1.73% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO George M. Sewell sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.53, for a total transaction of $91,060.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 28,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,292,369.05. This represents a 6.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 4,000 shares of company stock worth $183,060. 3.72% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in PROG by 12.5% in the 2nd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 697,324 shares of the fintech holding company’s stock worth $32,502,000 after acquiring an additional 77,291 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in PROG during the second quarter valued at approximately $31,229,000. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of PROG by 588.0% in the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 840,029 shares of the fintech holding company’s stock worth $24,100,000 after purchasing an additional 717,932 shares during the period. Breach Inlet Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of PROG by 22.4% in the fourth quarter. Breach Inlet Capital Management LLC now owns 762,847 shares of the fintech holding company’s stock worth $22,496,000 after purchasing an additional 139,398 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ancora Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of PROG in the second quarter worth $22,288,000. 97.92% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PRG has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wall Street Zen cut PROG from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, September 6th. TD Cowen raised their target price on PROG from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Loop Capital downgraded PROG from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $48.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of PROG from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of PROG from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Friday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $48.19.

PROG Stock Performance

Shares of PRG stock traded down $1.44 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $29.84. 1,265,755 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 541,185. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 2.29 and a current ratio of 4.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.19 billion, a PE ratio of 8.25 and a beta of 1.78. PROG has a 12 month low of $25.80 and a 12 month high of $47.73. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $38.21 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $36.99.

PROG (NYSE:PRG) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The fintech holding company reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.24. The company had revenue of $719.72 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $713.50 million. PROG had a return on equity of 21.88% and a net margin of 5.57%.PROG has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.000-1.200 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 4.750-5.000 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that PROG will post 4.93 EPS for the current year.

PROG Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 18th were paid a $0.14 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 18th. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. PROG’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.47%.

PROG Company Profile

PROG Holdings, Inc is a financial technology company that provides flexible payment and lease-to-own solutions to consumers and retail partners. Its primary business is Progressive Leasing, an omnichannel lease-to-own platform that enables customers to acquire products through participating retailers and repay over time through structured lease payments.

Progressive Leasing supports purchases across categories such as furniture, appliances, electronics, mattresses, jewelry and other household goods.