Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Sells 14,128 Shares of The Progressive Corporation $PGR

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lowered its stake in shares of The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) by 17.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 68,068 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 14,128 shares during the quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Progressive were worth $13,494,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Diamant Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Progressive by 19,724.0% in the first quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,068,876 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $806,614,000 after purchasing an additional 4,048,351 shares during the last quarter. Kenora Financial LLC grew its position in Progressive by 8.8% in the 1st quarter. Kenora Financial LLC now owns 5,319 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,054,000 after purchasing an additional 428 shares in the last quarter. MRA Advisory Group increased its stake in Progressive by 6.5% in the 1st quarter. MRA Advisory Group now owns 1,697 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $336,000 after buying an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC increased its stake in Progressive by 399.4% in the 1st quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC now owns 6,033 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,252,000 after buying an additional 4,825 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lifted its position in shares of Progressive by 3.1% during the 1st quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 347,477 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $68,885,000 after buying an additional 10,605 shares in the last quarter. 85.34% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Progressive

In other Progressive news, insider John Jo Murphy sold 5,916 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total transaction of $1,183,200.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 41,290 shares in the company, valued at $8,258,000. This represents a 12.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Jeffrey D. Kelly sold 7,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $216.33, for a total value of $1,514,310.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 22,546 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,877,376.18. The trade was a 23.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 15,230 shares of company stock worth $3,165,817. Corporate insiders own 0.32% of the company’s stock.

Progressive Trading Up 3.0%

Shares of Progressive stock opened at $224.95 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $131.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.44, a P/E/G ratio of 6.61 and a beta of 0.26. The Progressive Corporation has a 52-week low of $189.20 and a 52-week high of $263.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 0.27 and a current ratio of 0.27. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $202.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $206.65.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 15th. The insurance provider reported $4.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.67 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $22.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $23.51 billion. Progressive had a net margin of 12.92% and a return on equity of 33.47%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $4.37 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that The Progressive Corporation will post 17.12 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 2nd will be issued a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 2nd. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 2.03%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PGR has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Argus raised Progressive to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered Progressive from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $205.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Monday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on Progressive from $208.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Barclays set a $247.00 price objective on Progressive in a research note on Wednesday, March 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Progressive from $205.00 to $190.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $237.37.

About Progressive

Progressive Corporation is a large U.S.-based property and casualty insurer that primarily underwrites personal auto insurance along with a broad suite of related products. Its offerings include coverage for private passenger automobiles, commercial auto fleets, motorcycles, boats and recreational vehicles, as well as homeowners, renters, umbrella and other specialty P&C products. Progressive also provides claims handling, risk management and related services to individual and commercial policyholders.

The company distributes its products through a mix of direct channels—online and by phone—and an extensive independent agent network.