Progressive (NYSE:PGR) Reaches New 52-Week High After Analyst Upgrade

The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Wednesday after Barclays raised their price target on the stock from $261.00 to $264.00. Barclays currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Progressive traded as high as $270.79 and last traded at $269.71, with a volume of 3164166 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $263.93.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on PGR. Raymond James upgraded Progressive from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 26th. HSBC downgraded Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $267.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Hsbc Global Res downgraded Progressive from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on Progressive from $295.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Progressive from $251.00 to $256.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $275.88.

Insider Buying and Selling at Progressive

In other news, CAO Mariann Wojtkun Marshall sold 191 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.10, for a total value of $46,241.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 3,982 shares in the company, valued at approximately $964,042.20. This trade represents a 4.58 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Andrew J. Quigg sold 681 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.10, for a total value of $164,870.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 33,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,137,465.20. The trade was a 1.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 56,361 shares of company stock worth $13,983,575 in the last 90 days. 0.34% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its position in Progressive by 98.2% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 789 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $189,000 after purchasing an additional 391 shares during the period. Townsquare Capital LLC boosted its position in Progressive by 90.9% during the 3rd quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 7,813 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,983,000 after purchasing an additional 3,720 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its position in Progressive by 7.0% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,067,924 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,286,036,000 after purchasing an additional 330,667 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in Progressive by 2,262.4% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 433,999 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $103,990,000 after purchasing an additional 415,628 shares during the period. Finally, Signal Advisors Wealth LLC boosted its position in Progressive by 42.3% during the 4th quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC now owns 11,889 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,849,000 after purchasing an additional 3,534 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Progressive Stock Up 2.2 %

The firm has a market cap of $158.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $246.11 and a 200-day moving average of $248.36.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The insurance provider reported $4.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.44 by $0.64. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.79% and a net margin of 11.25%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that The Progressive Co. will post 14.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 9th were paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. Progressive’s payout ratio is currently 2.78%.

Progressive Company 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.