Prudential Financial Inc. Purchases 88,832 Shares of PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG)

Prudential Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG) by 76.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 205,050 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 88,832 shares during the quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. owned approximately 0.49% of PROG worth $8,665,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its position in PROG by 141.1% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,208 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 707 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP boosted its stake in PROG by 162.9% in the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,517 shares of the company’s stock worth $74,000 after purchasing an additional 940 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV grew its holdings in shares of PROG by 53.9% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,015 shares of the company’s stock worth $85,000 after purchasing an additional 706 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of PROG in the fourth quarter valued at $101,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in shares of PROG by 38.6% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,691 shares of the company’s stock valued at $156,000 after buying an additional 1,027 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.92% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at PROG

In other news, Director Douglas C. Curling acquired 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The stock was purchased at an average price of $29.88 per share, for a total transaction of $298,800.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 45,913 shares in the company, valued at $1,371,880.44. This trade represents a 27.85 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Caroline Sio-Chin Sheu bought 1,650 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $28.01 per share, for a total transaction of $46,216.50. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 18,291 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $512,330.91. This trade represents a 9.92 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 2.74% of the company’s stock.

PROG Stock Down 3.7 %

Shares of NYSE:PRG opened at $26.39 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $34.35 and a 200-day moving average of $41.81. PROG Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $25.93 and a one year high of $50.28. The stock has a market cap of $1.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.81 and a beta of 2.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 5.24 and a quick ratio of 2.34.

PROG (NYSE:PRG) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.03. PROG had a net margin of 8.01% and a return on equity of 24.25%. The firm had revenue of $623.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $612.67 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.72 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that PROG Holdings, Inc. will post 3.45 earnings per share for the current year.

PROG Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 25th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 13th were issued a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.97%. This is a boost from PROG’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. PROG’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.57%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of PROG in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of PROG from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $58.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, PROG currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $49.00.

PROG Profile

PROG Holdings, Inc (NYSE:PRG) is a financial technology holding company based in Salt Lake City, Utah with three business segments: Progressive Leasing, which offers lease-to-own transactions primarily to credit-challenged consumers through e-commerce and point-of-sale retail partners, via online, mobile, and in-store solutions; Vive Financial, which provides consumers who may not qualify for traditional prime lending with a variety of second-look, revolving credit products through private label and branded credit cards; and Four Technologies, which provides consumers of all credit backgrounds Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options through four interest-free installments via its platform, Four.