Banco Santander S.A. Raises Stock Position in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Banco Santander S.A. lifted its stake in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 14.0% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 104,276 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 12,845 shares during the period. Banco Santander S.A.’s holdings in Progressive were worth $26,461,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of PGR. Seven Eight Capital LP purchased a new position in shares of Progressive during the 1st quarter worth approximately $568,000. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Progressive by 19.8% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 14,940 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,090,000 after purchasing an additional 2,467 shares in the last quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Progressive during the 1st quarter worth $76,000. CreativeOne Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Progressive in the first quarter valued at about $220,000. Finally, EP Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Progressive by 4.1% in the 1st quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,579 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $327,000 after acquiring an additional 62 shares during the period. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Progressive Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE PGR opened at $258.00 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $151.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 0.36. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $252.58 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $230.94. The Progressive Co. has a one year low of $149.14 and a one year high of $263.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 0.30 and a quick ratio of 0.30.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The insurance provider reported $3.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.40 by $0.18. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.10% and a net margin of 11.27%. The firm had revenue of $19.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.95 billion. Analysts anticipate that The Progressive Co. will post 13.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Progressive

In other Progressive news, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 43,370 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $252.20, for a total value of $10,937,914.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 473,735 shares in the company, valued at $119,475,967. The trade was a 8.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Steven Broz sold 2,982 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.00, for a total transaction of $775,320.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,334 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,626,840. The trade was a 9.23 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 59,209 shares of company stock worth $14,975,979 in the last ninety days. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have weighed in on PGR. Barclays upped their target price on Progressive from $267.00 to $277.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Progressive from $250.00 to $252.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Progressive from $197.00 to $237.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Roth Mkm lifted their price objective on Progressive from $270.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Progressive from $281.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $269.81.

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.