FourThought Financial Partners LLC Buys New Position in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

FourThought Financial Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,714 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $411,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Progressive by 13.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,425,792 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,652,235,000 after purchasing an additional 1,682,213 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC raised its holdings in Progressive by 21.6% in the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 4,749,628 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,205,266,000 after purchasing an additional 842,109 shares in the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec raised its holdings in Progressive by 75.3% in the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 1,494,084 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $379,139,000 after purchasing an additional 641,943 shares in the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund raised its holdings in Progressive by 102.3% in the third quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 1,024,992 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $260,102,000 after purchasing an additional 518,262 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Erste Asset Management GmbH bought a new position in Progressive in the third quarter worth $125,044,000. Institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Progressive Trading Up 2.2 %

Progressive stock opened at $278.62 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.31 and a quick ratio of 0.30. The Progressive Co. has a one year low of $186.94 and a one year high of $279.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $163.22 billion, a PE ratio of 19.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.42. The business’s fifty day moving average is $247.97 and its 200 day moving average is $250.14.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The insurance provider reported $4.08 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.44 by $0.64. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.79% and a net margin of 11.25%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that The Progressive Co. will post 14.68 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 9th were issued a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.14%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is 2.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Progressive

In other Progressive news, insider Andrew J. Quigg sold 681 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.10, for a total value of $164,870.10. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 33,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,137,465.20. This represents a 1.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.09, for a total value of $2,680,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 292,958 shares in the company, valued at approximately $78,539,110.22. This represents a 3.30 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 56,361 shares of company stock valued at $13,983,575. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PGR has been the subject of a number of research reports. 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 report on Thursday, December 26th. StockNews.com upgraded Progressive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. HSBC cut Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $267.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on Progressive from $273.00 to $267.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, TD Cowen increased their target price on Progressive from $197.00 to $237.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $277.59.

About Progressive

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.