Employees Retirement System of Texas Buys 18,250 Shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Employees Retirement System of Texas increased its stake in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 112.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 34,541 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 18,250 shares during the period. Employees Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Progressive were worth $8,276,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Webster Bank N. A. acquired a new position in shares of Progressive during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Hager Investment Management Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Progressive during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Progressive by 54.7% during the 4th quarter. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 116 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. lifted its stake in Progressive by 3,000.0% in the 4th quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 124 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Atala Financial Inc acquired a new position in shares of Progressive during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Progressive

In other news, insider Andrew J. Quigg sold 962 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.29, for a total value of $234,044.98. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 34,787 shares in the company, valued at $8,463,329.23. This represents a 2.69 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Carl G. Joyce sold 360 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.17, for a total transaction of $99,421.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 655 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $180,891.35. The trade was a 35.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 56,317 shares of company stock valued at $14,844,282 over the last ninety days. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on PGR. Barclays boosted their price objective on Progressive from $264.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. StockNews.com downgraded Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Raymond James raised Progressive from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 26th. Roth Mkm raised their price target on shares of Progressive from $290.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, HSBC lowered shares of Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $267.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $280.29.

Progressive Trading Down 10.4 %

NYSE PGR opened at $257.27 on Monday. The Progressive Co. has a 52 week low of $201.34 and a 52 week high of $292.99. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $269.14 and a 200-day moving average price of $256.73. The company has a quick ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The company has a market cap of $150.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.38.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The insurance provider reported $4.08 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.44 by $0.64. Progressive had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 33.79%. As a group, equities analysts expect that The Progressive Co. will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is currently 2.78%.

Progressive Company 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.