Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. Trims Stock Position in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. trimmed its stake in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 81.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,631 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 7,200 shares during the period. Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in Progressive were worth $339,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Progressive by 0.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 51,751,851 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $10,703,318,000 after purchasing an additional 285,070 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its stake in shares of Progressive by 15.7% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 4,925,019 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,018,592,000 after purchasing an additional 670,006 shares in the last quarter. FIL Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Progressive by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 4,885,731 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $778,199,000 after purchasing an additional 19,724 shares during the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Progressive by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,577,731 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $569,861,000 after purchasing an additional 86,686 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in shares of Progressive by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,392,773 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $497,003,000 after buying an additional 69,709 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Progressive Stock Up 0.3 %

PGR opened at $257.69 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $232.38 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $216.31. The company has a market capitalization of $150.93 billion, a PE ratio of 26.38, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.35. The Progressive Co. has a 1-year low of $137.59 and a 1-year high of $260.46. The company has a current ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 16th. The insurance provider reported $2.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.04 by $0.61. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.01% and a net margin of 10.17%. The company had revenue of $17.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.54 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.57 earnings per share. Progressive’s quarterly revenue was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that The Progressive Co. will post 12.29 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 3rd. Progressive’s payout ratio is 4.09%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Progressive

In other news, insider Steven Broz sold 3,050 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $209.81, for a total value of $639,920.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 32,453 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,808,963.93. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Progressive news, insider Steven Broz sold 3,050 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $209.81, for a total value of $639,920.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 32,453 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,808,963.93. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 43,371 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $214.01, for a total value of $9,281,827.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 517,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $110,665,641.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 146,704 shares of company stock valued at $33,367,408 over the last 90 days. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PGR has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Progressive from $243.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Barclays assumed coverage on Progressive in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $367.00 price target for the company. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Progressive from $294.00 to $312.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. HSBC raised shares of Progressive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $253.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of Progressive from $255.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Progressive currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $257.18.

Progressive Profile

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.