Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC Raises Stock Holdings in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC lifted its holdings in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 4.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 60,786 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,376 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC’s holdings in Progressive were worth $12,526,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Progressive by 0.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 51,751,851 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $10,703,318,000 after purchasing an additional 285,070 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its position in Progressive by 15.7% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 4,925,019 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,018,592,000 after acquiring an additional 670,006 shares in the last quarter. FIL Ltd boosted its position in Progressive by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 4,885,731 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $778,199,000 after acquiring an additional 19,724 shares in the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in Progressive by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,577,731 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $569,861,000 after acquiring an additional 86,686 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in Progressive by 3.0% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,392,773 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $497,003,000 after acquiring an additional 69,709 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on PGR shares. Barclays started coverage on Progressive in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $367.00 target price on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on Progressive from $255.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Progressive from $243.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Progressive from $210.00 to $239.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Progressive from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $230.00 to $262.00 in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $256.12.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Progressive news, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 43,370 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $252.20, for a total transaction 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 43,370 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $252.20, for a total value of $10,937,914.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 473,735 shares in the company, valued at $119,475,967. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Jo Murphy sold 9,512 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $237.50, for a total value of $2,259,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 45,787 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,874,412.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 146,704 shares of company stock worth $33,367,408 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Progressive Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of Progressive stock opened at $256.91 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $150.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.30, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.35. The Progressive Co. has a fifty-two week low of $137.59 and a fifty-two week high of $260.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a current ratio of 0.31. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $231.42 and a 200 day moving average of $216.02.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 16th. The insurance provider reported $2.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.04 by $0.61. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.01% and a net margin of 10.17%. The company had revenue of $17.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.54 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.57 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that The Progressive Co. will post 12.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 3rd will be paid 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 is Thursday, October 3rd. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 4.09%.

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.