Boston Partners Has $1.28 Million Position in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Boston Partners decreased its holdings in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 64.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 5,343 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 9,538 shares during the quarter. Boston Partners’ holdings in Progressive were worth $1,280,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Progressive by 29.8% during the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 15,240 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,867,000 after purchasing an additional 3,498 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC raised its holdings in shares of Progressive by 20.5% in the 3rd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 391,273 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $99,290,000 after buying an additional 66,628 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Progressive by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 53,269 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $13,518,000 after buying an additional 1,362 shares during the period. Eagle Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Progressive by 92.8% in the 3rd quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 39,098 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $10,225,000 after buying an additional 18,820 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. grew its position in Progressive by 6.4% in the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 470,394 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $119,367,000 after acquiring an additional 28,398 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Progressive Trading Down 0.6 %

PGR opened at $273.08 on Friday. The Progressive Co. has a fifty-two week low of $201.34 and a fifty-two week high of $292.99. The company has a market cap of $160.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.31 and a quick ratio of 0.30. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $261.96 and a 200 day simple moving average of $255.01.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The insurance provider reported $4.08 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.44 by $0.64. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.79% and a net margin of 11.25%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that The Progressive Co. will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.15%. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is 2.78%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on PGR. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Progressive from $300.00 to $307.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Progressive from $275.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Hsbc Global Res cut shares of Progressive from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Progressive from $294.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Raymond James upgraded Progressive from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 26th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $281.06.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Progressive news, CAO Mariann Wojtkun Marshall sold 191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.10, for a total value of $46,241.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,982 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $964,042.20. The trade was a 4.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Andrew J. Quigg sold 681 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.10, for a total value of $164,870.10. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 33,612 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,137,465.20. This represents a 1.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 65,495 shares of company stock valued at $16,668,034 in the last 90 days. 0.34% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Progressive 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.