OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd Sells 3,667 Shares of The Progressive Corporation $PGR

OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd lessened its position in shares of The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) by 66.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,853 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 3,667 shares during the period. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd’s holdings in Progressive were worth $422,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of PGR. Capital International Investors raised its stake in Progressive by 78.9% during the third quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 13,704,197 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,384,082,000 after buying an additional 6,045,732 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in Progressive by 26.1% during the third quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 11,167,940 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,757,905,000 after buying an additional 2,314,864 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC raised its stake in Progressive by 2,012.0% during the third quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 767,549 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $189,546,000 after buying an additional 731,207 shares during the last quarter. Marshfield Associates raised its stake in Progressive by 70.8% during the third quarter. Marshfield Associates now owns 1,577,453 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $389,552,000 after buying an additional 653,763 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Danske Bank A S bought a new position in Progressive during the third quarter worth $154,257,000. Institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on PGR shares. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Progressive from $218.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, March 23rd. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Progressive from $208.00 to $221.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Progressive in a research note on Friday, March 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Progressive from $303.00 to $275.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 7th. Finally, Roth Mkm set a $235.00 price target on shares of Progressive in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $238.39.

Insider Buying and Selling at Progressive

In other news, insider Maribel Pumarejo sold 739 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $203.25, for a total transaction of $150,201.75. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Carl G. Joyce sold 270 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.50, for a total transaction of $55,755.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 558 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $115,227. This represents a 32.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 6,933 shares of company stock valued at $1,441,564 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.32% of the company’s stock.

Progressive Trading Up 1.3%

NYSE:PGR opened at $205.38 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $120.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.44, a PEG ratio of 6.68 and a beta of 0.34. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $203.46 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $213.78. The Progressive Corporation has a 12 month low of $192.02 and a 12 month high of $289.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 15th. The insurance provider reported $4.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.67 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $22.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $23.51 billion. Progressive had a net margin of 12.92% and a return on equity of 33.47%. The business’s revenue was up 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $4.37 earnings per share. Analysts expect that The Progressive Corporation will post 16.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 2nd. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 2.03%.

About Progressive

Progressive Corporation is a large U.S.-based property and casualty insurer that primarily underwrites personal auto insurance along with a broad suite of related products. Its offerings include coverage for private passenger automobiles, commercial auto fleets, motorcycles, boats and recreational vehicles, as well as homeowners, renters, umbrella and other specialty P&C products. Progressive also provides claims handling, risk management and related services to individual and commercial policyholders.

The company distributes its products through a mix of direct channels—online and by phone—and an extensive independent agent network.