Bailard Inc. Boosts Stake in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Bailard Inc. boosted its position in shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 1.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 16,322 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 238 shares during the quarter. Bailard Inc.’s holdings in Progressive were worth $2,600,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in Progressive by 14.1% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 21,554,503 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $3,002,542,000 after buying an additional 2,666,449 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Progressive by 31.8% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,781,075 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $666,004,000 after acquiring an additional 1,154,591 shares in the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Progressive by 102.9% during the third quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 2,131,601 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $296,932,000 after acquiring an additional 1,080,834 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in Progressive by 10.5% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 6,916,460 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $963,463,000 after purchasing an additional 655,706 shares during the last quarter. Finally, J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Progressive in the 3rd quarter valued at about $88,528,000. 85.34% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PGR has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Roth Mkm boosted their price objective on shares of Progressive from $215.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Bank of America lowered their price objective on Progressive from $279.00 to $273.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Progressive from $228.00 to $247.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Progressive from $241.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Progressive from $216.00 to $218.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $211.88.

Progressive Stock Performance

PGR traded down $2.55 on Friday, hitting $207.52. The company had a trading volume of 595,859 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,584,789. The Progressive Co. has a 1-year low of $111.41 and a 1-year high of $216.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.31. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $202.07 and its 200 day moving average price is $177.06. The stock has a market cap of $121.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 0.35.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 12th. The insurance provider reported $3.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.20 by $0.74. The company had revenue of $18.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.88 billion. Progressive had a net margin of 8.89% and a return on equity of 29.43%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.65 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that The Progressive Co. will post 11.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 4th were given a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.19%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 3rd. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is presently 4.09%.

Insider Activity

In other Progressive news, Director Devin C. Johnson sold 1,000 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $208.33, for a total transaction of $208,330.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 7,176 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,494,976.08. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Progressive news, insider Patrick K. Callahan sold 29,675 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 in the company, valued at $2,889,859.14. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Devin C. Johnson sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.33, for a total value of $208,330.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,176 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,494,976.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 39,139 shares of company stock worth $7,458,139. 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.