Progressive (NYSE:PGR) Downgraded to “Hold” Rating by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Progressive (NYSE:PGR) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Sunday morning.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Progressive from $280.00 to $268.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on Progressive from $268.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 18th. BMO Capital Markets set a $252.00 price objective on Progressive in a research note on Thursday, September 18th. Wolfe Research began coverage on Progressive in a research note on Monday, September 15th. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Progressive from $309.00 to $287.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $279.31.

Progressive Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:PGR opened at $238.41 on Friday. 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 fifty day simple moving average is $245.63 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $262.78. Progressive has a 1-year low of $228.54 and a 1-year high of $292.99. The stock has a market cap of $139.76 billion, a PE ratio of 13.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.32.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 16th. The insurance provider reported $4.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $20.39 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.48 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Progressive will post 14.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Lori A. Niederst sold 8,063 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.18, for a total value of $2,017,201.34. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 39,040 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,767,027.20. The trade was a 17.12% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Jo Murphy sold 2,218 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.10, for a total value of $536,977.80. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 43,506 shares in the company, valued at $10,532,802.60. This represents a 4.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 140,045 shares of company stock worth $34,635,290 in the last ninety days. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Progressive

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PGR. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Progressive in the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,156,939,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Progressive in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,473,180,000. GQG Partners LLC raised its stake in Progressive by 61.4% in the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 8,346,133 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,362,039,000 after acquiring an additional 3,174,632 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Progressive by 39,285.0% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,046,037 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $862,059,000 after buying an additional 3,038,303 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its holdings in Progressive by 32.8% during the 2nd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 10,972,574 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,928,141,000 after buying an additional 2,709,417 shares in the last quarter. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.