John Jo Murphy Sells 5,916 Shares of Progressive (NYSE:PGR) Stock

The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) insider John Jo Murphy sold 5,916 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total value of $1,183,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 41,290 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,258,000. This trade represents a 12.53% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Progressive Stock Down 1.2%

Shares of NYSE:PGR traded down $2.53 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $201.49. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 939,864 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,213,677. The Progressive Corporation has a 52 week low of $189.20 and a 52 week high of $278.71. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $198.89 and its 200 day moving average price is $208.75. The company has a market capitalization of $117.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.24, a P/E/G ratio of 5.91 and a beta of 0.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 0.27 and a quick ratio of 0.27.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last posted 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $4.37 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that The Progressive Corporation will post 16.35 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 2nd will be given a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 2nd. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is currently 2.03%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Klingman & Associates LLC grew its holdings in shares of Progressive by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Klingman & Associates LLC now owns 2,927 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $667,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the period. Wealthstream Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Progressive by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. Wealthstream Advisors Inc. now owns 1,111 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $274,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Revisor Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Progressive by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Revisor Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,902 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $395,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Cullen Investment Group LTD. raised its stake in shares of Progressive by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Cullen Investment Group LTD. now owns 7,463 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,606,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the period. Finally, Pines Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Progressive by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Pines Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,399 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $319,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on PGR. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Progressive from $218.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, March 23rd. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Progressive from $325.00 to $320.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Progressive from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $208.00 price target on shares of Progressive in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Progressive from $205.00 to $190.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $238.11.

About Progressive

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.