The Progressive Corporation $PGR is London Co. of Virginia’s 8th Largest Position

London Co. of Virginia decreased its holdings in The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) by 3.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,692,345 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 56,431 shares during the quarter. Progressive comprises approximately 2.2% of London Co. of Virginia’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest holding. London Co. of Virginia owned about 0.29% of Progressive worth $385,386,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Allstate Corp raised its position in Progressive by 106.1% in the fourth quarter. Allstate Corp now owns 44,513 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $10,136,000 after acquiring an additional 22,915 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Progressive in the fourth quarter worth $1,836,094,000. Mariner LLC raised its position in Progressive by 7.9% in the third quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 644,636 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $159,183,000 after acquiring an additional 47,248 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its position in Progressive by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,807,068 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $411,506,000 after acquiring an additional 97,275 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Investment House LLC purchased a new position in Progressive in the fourth quarter worth $8,447,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Progressive Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of PGR stock opened at $204.70 on Wednesday. The Progressive Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $189.20 and a fifty-two week high of $267.92. The stock has a market cap of $119.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.41, a P/E/G ratio of 5.90 and a beta of 0.28. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $199.56 and a 200-day simple moving average of $207.60. The company has a quick ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 15th. The insurance provider reported $4.80 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.67 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $22.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $23.51 billion. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.47% and a net margin of 12.92%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $4.37 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that The Progressive Corporation will post 16.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on PGR. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Progressive in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Zacks Research upgraded Progressive from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Bank of America dropped their price target on Progressive from $325.00 to $320.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Argus upgraded Progressive to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Progressive from $205.00 to $190.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 31st. Six investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $238.11.

Insider Activity at Progressive

In related news, insider Steven Broz sold 1,157 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 $231,400.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 28,668 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,733,600. This trade represents a 3.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider John Jo Murphy sold 5,916 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total value of $1,183,200.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 41,290 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,258,000. The trade was a 12.53% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 7,343 shares of company stock valued at $1,470,355 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.32% of the company’s stock.

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.