Foster & Motley Inc. Makes New Investment in The Progressive Corporation $PGR

Foster & Motley Inc. acquired a new stake in The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 3,683 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $805,000.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Klingman & Associates LLC grew its position in shares of Progressive by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Klingman & Associates LLC now owns 2,927 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $667,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Pines Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Progressive by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Pines Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,399 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $319,000 after buying an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Investment Management Company LLC grew its holdings in Progressive by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Investment Management Company LLC now owns 18,736 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $4,267,000 after buying an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. Phillips Wealth Planners LLC increased its position in Progressive by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Phillips Wealth Planners LLC now owns 1,916 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $436,000 after buying an additional 52 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Progressive by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. now owns 4,307 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $981,000 after buying an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on PGR shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on shares of Progressive from $231.00 to $226.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $208.00 target price on shares of Progressive in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $230.00 target price on shares of Progressive in a report on Wednesday. Mizuho set a $236.00 price objective on Progressive in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Progressive in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fifteen have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $234.11.

Progressive Stock Performance

NYSE:PGR opened at $217.28 on Thursday. The Progressive Corporation has a twelve month low of $189.20 and a twelve month high of $254.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $214.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $206.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $126.32 billion, a PE ratio of 10.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.27.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The insurance provider reported $5.67 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.64 by $1.03. The firm had revenue of $23.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $19.49 billion. Progressive had a net margin of 12.84% and a return on equity of 32.92%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $5.40 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that The Progressive Corporation will post 17.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 9th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 1st will be paid a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 1st. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is presently 2.01%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Progressive

In other Progressive news, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 37,338 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction on Monday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $212.71, for a total transaction of $7,942,165.98. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 522,776 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $111,199,682.96. The trade was a 6.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Jeffrey D. Kelly sold 7,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $216.33, for a total transaction of $1,514,310.00. Following the sale, the director owned 22,546 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,877,376.18. This trade represents a 23.69% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 82,224 shares of company stock valued at $17,416,438 over the last three months. 0.32% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.