Schechter Investment Advisors LLC Sells 2,663 Shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Schechter Investment Advisors LLC reduced its position in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 29.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 6,359 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 2,663 shares during the quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Progressive were worth $1,013,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Giverny Capital Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Progressive by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Giverny Capital Inc. now owns 501,431 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $69,849,000 after purchasing an additional 14,022 shares in the last quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC raised its position in Progressive by 3.9% in the 3rd 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 last quarter. AIA Group Ltd raised its position in Progressive by 4.9% in the 3rd 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 last quarter. First Affirmative Financial Network purchased a new stake in Progressive in the 4th quarter valued at $295,000. Finally, DNB Asset Management AS raised its position in Progressive by 4.0% in the 4th 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 last quarter. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PGR has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group increased their price target on Progressive from $159.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Progressive from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Citigroup raised their target price on Progressive from $192.00 to $202.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Wells Fargo & Company raised Progressive from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $144.00 to $176.00 in a research report on Monday, December 18th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Progressive from $161.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $184.50.

Progressive Price Performance

Shares of Progressive stock opened at $206.15 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 0.31 and a quick ratio of 0.31. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $188.82 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $167.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $120.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 0.34. The Progressive Co. has a one year low of $111.41 and a one year high of $207.87.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last posted its 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. Progressive had a return on equity of 21.25% and a net margin of 6.28%. The firm had revenue of $16.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.52 earnings per share. Analysts forecast 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. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 4th will be issued a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 3rd. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 12.92%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Karen Bailo sold 8,464 shares of the company’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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 32,342 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,128,485.58. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 13,110 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.26, for a total transaction of $2,127,228.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 465,737 shares in the company, valued at $75,570,485.62. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, 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 sale, the insider now owns 32,342 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,128,485.58. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 58,949 shares of company stock valued at $10,671,740. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.