Fifth Third Bancorp Decreases Position in The Progressive Corporation $PGR

Fifth Third Bancorp lessened its holdings in shares of The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) by 4.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 104,879 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 4,942 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp’s holdings in Progressive were worth $23,883,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund raised its stake in shares of Progressive by 30.2% during the 3rd quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 102,778 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $25,381,000 after buying an additional 23,833 shares during the period. Allstate Corp raised its stake in shares of Progressive by 1,614.1% during the 3rd quarter. Allstate Corp now owns 21,598 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $5,334,000 after buying an additional 20,338 shares during the period. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC raised its stake in shares of Progressive by 91.7% during the 3rd quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 11,710 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,892,000 after buying an additional 5,600 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC. raised its stake in shares of Progressive by 40.6% during the 3rd quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 16,840 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $4,159,000 after buying an additional 4,865 shares during the period. Finally, Arkadios Wealth Advisors raised its stake in shares of Progressive by 471.3% during the 3rd quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors now owns 22,496 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $5,556,000 after buying an additional 18,558 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Progressive news, insider Karen Bailo sold 3,517 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $212.00, for a total value of $745,604.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 32,348 shares in the company, valued at $6,857,776. This represents a 9.81% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Maribel Pumarejo sold 739 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $203.25, for a total value of $150,201.75. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 6,933 shares of company stock valued at $1,441,564 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PGR has been the subject of several research reports. Barclays set a $247.00 price target on Progressive in a research report on Wednesday, March 18th. Zacks Research upgraded Progressive from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Citigroup dropped their price target on Progressive from $300.60 to $261.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Progressive in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on Progressive from $218.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 23rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $238.39.

Progressive Stock Down 0.8%

Shares of NYSE:PGR opened at $199.60 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 0.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The business has a fifty day moving average of $203.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $212.38. The stock has a market cap of $116.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.15, a PEG ratio of 6.64 and a beta of 0.34. The Progressive Corporation has a 52-week low of $192.02 and a 52-week high of $289.96.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 15th. The insurance provider reported $4.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.67 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $22.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $23.51 billion. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.47% and a net margin of 12.92%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $4.37 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that The Progressive Corporation will post 16.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 2nd were issued a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 2nd. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is presently 2.03%.

Progressive Company Profile

Progressive Corporation is a large U.S.-based property and casualty insurer that primarily underwrites personal auto insurance along with a broad suite of related products. Its offerings include coverage for private passenger automobiles, commercial auto fleets, motorcycles, boats and recreational vehicles, as well as homeowners, renters, umbrella and other specialty P&C products. Progressive also provides claims handling, risk management and related services to individual and commercial policyholders.

The company distributes its products through a mix of direct channels—online and by phone—and an extensive independent agent network.