Earnest Partners LLC Sells 127,512 Shares of The Progressive Corporation $PGR

Earnest Partners LLC cut its holdings in The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) by 20.3% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 501,440 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 127,512 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC’s holdings in Progressive were worth $141,913,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of PGR. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Progressive in the first quarter worth about $1,473,180,000. GQG Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Progressive by 61.4% in the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 8,346,133 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,362,039,000 after purchasing an additional 3,174,632 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Progressive by 39,285.0% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,046,037 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $862,059,000 after purchasing an additional 3,038,303 shares during the last quarter. C WorldWide Group Holding A S grew its stake in shares of Progressive by 12,110.3% in the first quarter. C WorldWide Group Holding A S now owns 1,248,628 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $353,374,000 after purchasing an additional 1,238,402 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in shares of Progressive by 18.1% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,983,567 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,433,722,000 after purchasing an additional 915,643 shares during the last quarter. 85.34% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI cut Progressive from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $275.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. UBS Group cut their price objective on Progressive from $280.00 to $268.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 21st. Bank of America cut their price objective on Progressive from $337.00 to $336.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Progressive from $265.00 to $267.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 22nd. Finally, Citigroup assumed coverage on Progressive in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $312.00 price objective on the stock. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Progressive currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $284.18.

Progressive Stock Performance

PGR stock opened at $245.71 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $144.04 billion, a PE ratio of 13.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 0.33. The Progressive Corporation has a 12-month low of $228.54 and a 12-month high of $292.99. The company has a current ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $250.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $266.35.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 16th. The insurance provider reported $4.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.43 by $0.45. The business had revenue of $20.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $20.39 billion. Progressive had a return on equity of 35.37% and a net margin of 12.66%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.48 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that The Progressive Corporation will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 2nd will be given a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 2.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 30,660 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.12, for a total value of $7,423,399.20. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 506,945 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $122,741,523.40. This represents a 5.70% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 16,664 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.24, for a total value of $4,153,335.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 228,024 shares in the company, valued at $56,832,701.76. This trade represents a 6.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 108,351 shares of company stock worth $27,003,746 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

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.