The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) Holdings Lifted by Evoke Wealth LLC

Evoke Wealth LLC grew its position in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 21.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,442 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 257 shares during the period. Evoke Wealth LLC’s holdings in Progressive were worth $345,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Progressive

In other news, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 1,542 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.66, for a total value of $435,861.72. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 268,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $75,759,663.84. This trade represents a 0.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CIO Jonathan S. Bauer sold 1,696 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.66, for a total transaction of $479,391.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now directly owns 26,697 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,546,174.02. This represents a 5.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 65,495 shares of company stock worth $16,668,034 over the last ninety days. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PGR has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Progressive from $313.00 to $317.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Progressive from $300.00 to $307.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com lowered shares of Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of Progressive from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Progressive from $251.00 to $256.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Progressive presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $281.76.

Progressive Price Performance

NYSE PGR opened at $273.19 on Thursday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $160.14 billion, a PE ratio of 18.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.35. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $260.59 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $254.70. The Progressive Co. has a 12-month low of $201.34 and a 12-month high of $292.99.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The insurance provider reported $4.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 predict that The Progressive Co. will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.