National Pension Service Boosts Stock Position in The Progressive Corporation $PGR

National Pension Service boosted its position in The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) by 3.2% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,336,735 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 41,337 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service’s holdings in Progressive were worth $292,010,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its position in Progressive by 23,059.4% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 199,767,282 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $43,639,163,000 after acquiring an additional 198,904,705 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Progressive during the second quarter worth $10,496,271,000. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Progressive by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 25,808,762 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $6,373,474,000 after purchasing an additional 78,374 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of Progressive by 8.9% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 14,921,724 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,398,123,000 after purchasing an additional 1,217,527 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in shares of Progressive in the 2nd quarter worth $2,682,342,000. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on PGR. Evercore set a $240.00 target price on Progressive in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Bank of America lowered their price target on Progressive from $313.00 to $308.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 16th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Progressive from $225.00 to $234.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 27th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $208.00 price objective on shares of Progressive in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. Finally, Roth Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $245.00 target price on shares of Progressive in a research note on Thursday, August 20th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Progressive presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $236.26.

Progressive Stock Up 0.1%

NYSE:PGR opened at $215.20 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 0.29 and a quick ratio of 0.29. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $217.28 and its 200-day moving average price is $208.06. The Progressive Corporation has a 1-year low of $189.20 and a 1-year high of $249.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $125.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.79, a PEG ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.27.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The insurance provider reported $5.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.64 by $1.03. Progressive had a net margin of 12.84% and a return on equity of 32.92%. The company had revenue of $23.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.49 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $5.40 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that The Progressive Corporation will post 17.74 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 9th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 1st will be issued a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 1st. Progressive’s payout ratio is 2.01%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Lori Niederst sold 7,339 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $209.29, for a total value of $1,535,979.31. Following the sale, the insider owned 42,567 shares in the company, valued at $8,908,847.43. This represents a 14.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider John Murphy sold 8,124 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $212.70, for a total value of $1,727,974.80. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 41,291 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,782,595.70. This trade represents a 16.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 113,714 shares of company stock worth $24,466,294. 0.32% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Progressive

Progressive Corporation, founded in 1937 and headquartered in Mayfield Village, Ohio, is an insurance company that primarily serves customers in the United States. The company is best known for its personal and commercial auto insurance businesses and distributes products through independent agents, direct channels and digital platforms.

Progressive offers a broad range of insurance products, including coverage for automobiles, motorcycles, boats, recreational vehicles, homes and renters.