Park Avenue Securities LLC Has $9.20 Million Stock Holdings in The Progressive Corporation $PGR

Park Avenue Securities LLC grew its position in shares of The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) by 22.8% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 34,464 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,392 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC’s holdings in Progressive were worth $9,197,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in PGR. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Progressive by 1.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 54,022,956 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $15,289,037,000 after acquiring an additional 622,590 shares during the period. GQG Partners LLC lifted 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 acquiring an additional 3,174,632 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Progressive by 15.2% in the first quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 8,263,157 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,338,556,000 after acquiring an additional 1,091,828 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its stake in shares of Progressive by 6.6% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 6,380,134 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,805,642,000 after acquiring an additional 396,567 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Progressive in the first quarter worth approximately $1,473,180,000. 85.34% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Progressive Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of Progressive stock opened at $242.26 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $245.83 and a 200 day simple moving average of $263.22. The Progressive Corporation has a 12-month low of $228.54 and a 12-month high of $292.99. The company has a market capitalization of $142.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.32. The company has a current ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 16th. The insurance provider reported $4.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.43 by $0.45. Progressive had a return on equity of 35.37% and a net margin of 12.66%.The business had revenue of $20.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.39 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.48 earnings per share. Progressive’s revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that The Progressive Corporation will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 2nd. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is 2.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Progressive

In other Progressive news, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 30,659 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $246.06, for a total value of $7,543,953.54. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 476,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $117,194,933.16. The trade was a 6.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Patrick K. Callahan sold 6,232 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.96, for a total value of $1,557,750.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 21,612 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,402,135.52. This represents a 22.38% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 130,062 shares of company stock valued at $32,217,635 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PGR has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Progressive in a research note on Monday, September 15th. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Progressive from $268.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets set a $252.00 price objective on Progressive in a research note on Thursday. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Progressive from $265.00 to $267.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 22nd. Finally, Bank of America cut their price objective on Progressive from $347.00 to $343.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $279.44.

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.