3Chopt Investment Partners LLC Acquires 173 Shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

3Chopt Investment Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 1.2% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 14,084 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 173 shares during the period. Progressive accounts for about 0.9% of 3Chopt Investment Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 26th largest holding. 3Chopt Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Progressive were worth $2,925,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Progressive by 0.6% during the 1st 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 grew its stake in Progressive by 15.7% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 4,925,019 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,018,592,000 after purchasing an additional 670,006 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in Progressive by 1.9% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 4,922,743 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,022,507,000 after purchasing an additional 92,212 shares in the last quarter. FIL Ltd lifted its position in 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 buying an additional 19,724 shares during the period. Finally, Baird Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Progressive by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,577,731 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $569,861,000 after buying an additional 86,686 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PGR has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Progressive from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Progressive from $294.00 to $312.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of Progressive from $256.00 to $257.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. HSBC upgraded shares of Progressive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $253.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Progressive from $239.00 to $237.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Progressive has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $257.18.

Progressive Trading Up 1.1 %

PGR stock opened at $253.76 on Tuesday. The Progressive Co. has a fifty-two week low of $137.59 and a fifty-two week high of $260.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a current ratio of 0.31. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $238.56 and a 200 day moving average price of $219.77. The firm has a market cap of $148.63 billion, a PE ratio of 25.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 0.35.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 16th. The insurance provider reported $2.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.04 by $0.61. The business had revenue of $17.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.54 billion. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.01% and a net margin of 10.17%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.57 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that The Progressive Co. will post 12.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Progressive

In other news, insider Andrew J. Quigg sold 3,975 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $214.01, for a total transaction of $850,689.75. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 32,780 shares in the company, valued at $7,015,247.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Progressive news, insider Andrew J. Quigg sold 3,975 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $214.01, for a total value of $850,689.75. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 32,780 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,015,247.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Dyke Kahina Van sold 2,180 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $252.28, for a total transaction of $549,970.40. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 13,723 shares in the company, valued at $3,462,038.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 146,512 shares of company stock worth $33,912,874 in the last quarter. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.