Heartland Bank & Trust Co Purchases New Stake in The Progressive Corporation $PGR

Heartland Bank & Trust Co acquired a new position in The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 3,372 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $737,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of PGR. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Progressive by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 55,261,140 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $12,584,067,000 after purchasing an additional 593,612 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Progressive in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $10,496,271,000. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Progressive by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 25,808,762 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $6,373,474,000 after buying an additional 78,374 shares during the period. Capital International Investors grew its holdings in shares of Progressive by 8.9% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 14,921,724 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $3,398,123,000 after acquiring an additional 1,217,527 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GQG Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Progressive by 11.7% in the fourth quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 10,432,549 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,375,706,000 after acquiring an additional 1,092,151 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Progressive

In other Progressive news, CIO Jonathan S. Bauer sold 2,242 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $212.71, for a total value of $476,895.82. Following the transaction, the executive directly owned 26,250 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,583,637.50. The trade was a 7.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Karen Bailo sold 8,452 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $212.71, for a total value of $1,797,824.92. Following the transaction, the insider owned 32,348 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,880,743.08. This trade represents a 20.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 82,224 shares of company stock worth $17,416,438. Insiders own 0.32% of the company’s stock.

Progressive Stock Performance

Shares of PGR opened at $219.45 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $127.58 billion, a PE ratio of 11.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 0.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 0.29 and a quick ratio of 0.29. The Progressive Corporation has a one year low of $189.20 and a one year high of $252.82. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $215.53 and its 200 day moving average price is $206.64.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The insurance provider reported $5.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.64 by $1.03. The company had revenue of $23.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $19.49 billion. Progressive had a net margin of 12.84% and a return on equity of 32.92%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $5.40 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that The Progressive Corporation will post 17.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 9th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 1st. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is presently 2.01%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Mizuho set a $236.00 price objective on Progressive in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. HSBC raised their price target on Progressive from $214.00 to $221.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Progressive from $313.00 to $308.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Progressive from $198.00 to $201.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Progressive from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $190.00 to $210.00 in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Progressive presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $236.05.

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.