Inspire Investing LLC Makes New Investment in PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG)

Inspire Investing LLC acquired a new position in shares of PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 19,710 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $833,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of PRG. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC grew its stake in PROG by 28.1% during the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 9,676 shares of the company’s stock worth $336,000 after buying an additional 2,124 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. grew its stake in PROG by 78.3% during the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 42,183 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,463,000 after buying an additional 18,518 shares in the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its stake in PROG by 3.6% during the second quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 95,016 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,295,000 after buying an additional 3,342 shares in the last quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd acquired a new stake in PROG during the second quarter worth about $47,000. Finally, Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in PROG during the second quarter worth about $123,000. 97.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on PRG. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of PROG from $50.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. TD Cowen raised shares of PROG to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 29th. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $60.00 target price on shares of PROG in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Raymond James raised shares of PROG from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, October 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $53.83.

PROG Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE PRG opened at $42.31 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $44.39 and a 200 day simple moving average of $44.41. The firm has a market cap of $1.76 billion, a PE ratio of 11.72 and a beta of 2.17. PROG Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $27.84 and a 1 year high of $50.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 4.97 and a quick ratio of 2.34.

PROG (NYSE:PRG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $606.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $601.86 million. PROG had a net margin of 6.55% and a return on equity of 24.56%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.90 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that PROG Holdings, Inc. will post 3.36 EPS for the current year.

PROG Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 19th were issued a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 19th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.13%. PROG’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.30%.

Insider Activity at PROG

In other PROG news, CFO Brian Garner sold 15,484 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.27, for a total transaction of $747,412.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 92,236 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,452,231.72. This represents a 14.37 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Steven A. Michaels sold 27,324 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.19, for a total transaction of $1,289,419.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 409,209 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,310,572.71. This represents a 6.26 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 119,207 shares of company stock worth $5,759,152 in the last quarter. 2.74% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About PROG

PROG Holdings, Inc (NYSE:PRG) is a financial technology holding company based in Salt Lake City, Utah with three business segments: Progressive Leasing, which offers lease-to-own transactions primarily to credit-challenged consumers through e-commerce and point-of-sale retail partners, via online, mobile, and in-store solutions; Vive Financial, which provides consumers who may not qualify for traditional prime lending with a variety of second-look, revolving credit products through private label and branded credit cards; and Four Technologies, which provides consumers of all credit backgrounds Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options through four interest-free installments via its platform, Four.