CoreCap Advisors LLC Makes New $275,000 Investment in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

CoreCap Advisors LLC acquired a new position in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 1,728 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $275,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Giverny Capital Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Progressive by 2.9% during the third quarter. Giverny Capital Inc. now owns 501,431 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $69,849,000 after acquiring an additional 14,022 shares during the period. Confluence Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Progressive by 3.9% in the third quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 1,263,862 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $176,056,000 after buying an additional 47,658 shares during the period. AIA Group Ltd lifted its stake in Progressive by 4.9% in the third quarter. AIA Group Ltd now owns 155,427 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $21,651,000 after buying an additional 7,268 shares during the period. First Affirmative Financial Network acquired a new position in Progressive in the fourth quarter valued at about $295,000. Finally, DNB Asset Management AS lifted its stake in Progressive by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 139,368 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $22,199,000 after buying an additional 5,403 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Karen Bailo sold 8,464 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.49, for a total transaction of $1,603,843.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 32,342 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,128,485.58. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Progressive news, insider Karen Bailo sold 8,464 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 32,342 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,128,485.58. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Patrick K. Callahan sold 29,675 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.26, for a total value of $5,645,965.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,189 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,889,859.14. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 58,949 shares of company stock worth $10,671,740. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on PGR. Raymond James lowered Progressive from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 12th. UBS Group raised their price target on Progressive from $159.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Citigroup raised their price target on Progressive from $192.00 to $202.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on Progressive from $185.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Progressive from $161.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $184.50.

Progressive Stock Performance

PGR opened at $206.15 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $188.82 and a 200 day simple moving average of $167.00. The company has a market capitalization of $120.74 billion, a PE ratio of 31.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 0.34. The Progressive Co. has a 1 year low of $111.41 and a 1 year high of $207.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 0.31 and a quick ratio of 0.31.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The insurance provider reported $2.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.53. The business had revenue of $16.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.10 billion. Progressive had a return on equity of 21.25% and a net margin of 6.28%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.52 EPS. Research analysts expect that The Progressive Co. will post 9.82 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 4th will be given a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 3rd. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.19%. Progressive’s payout ratio is 12.92%.

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.