Encompass More Asset Management Buys 678 Shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Encompass More Asset Management increased its stake in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 31.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,809 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 678 shares during the quarter. Encompass More Asset Management’s holdings in Progressive were worth $673,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of Progressive by 98.2% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 789 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $189,000 after purchasing an additional 391 shares during the period. Townsquare Capital LLC raised its stake in Progressive by 90.9% in the third quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 7,813 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,983,000 after buying an additional 3,720 shares in the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co lifted its holdings in Progressive by 84.3% during the third quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 25,738 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $6,531,000 after buying an additional 11,770 shares during the period. Sycomore Asset Management boosted its position in Progressive by 9.5% during the 2nd quarter. Sycomore Asset Management now owns 28,128 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $5,856,000 after acquiring an additional 2,450 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in shares of Progressive by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,067,924 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,286,036,000 after acquiring an additional 330,667 shares during the period. 85.34% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on PGR shares. 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 note on Thursday, December 26th. 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 note on Friday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Progressive from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Barclays reduced their target price on Progressive from $277.00 to $261.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Progressive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $274.65.

Progressive Stock Up 0.0 %

Shares of NYSE PGR opened at $239.29 on Friday. The Progressive Co. has a 52-week low of $175.50 and a 52-week high of $270.62. The company has a quick ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $248.98 and its 200-day simple moving average is $243.14. The firm has a market cap of $140.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 0.41.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 9th were paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.17%. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 2.91%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Progressive

In other news, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 11,021 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.29, for a total value of $2,681,299.09. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 473,736 shares in the company, valued at $115,255,231.44. This represents a 2.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.66, for a total transaction of $2,386,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 282,958 shares in the company, valued at approximately $67,530,756.28. This represents a 3.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 42,506 shares of company stock valued at $10,531,159 over the last quarter. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.