Waverly Advisors LLC Decreases Stock Position in The Progressive Corporation $PGR

Waverly Advisors LLC decreased its holdings in shares of The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) by 49.9% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 32,006 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 31,928 shares during the period. Waverly Advisors LLC’s holdings in Progressive were worth $6,992,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in shares of Progressive by 23,059.4% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 199,767,282 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $43,639,163,000 after purchasing an additional 198,904,705 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Progressive during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $10,496,271,000. State Street Corp increased its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 78,374 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 1,217,527 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new position in shares of Progressive in the second quarter worth $2,682,342,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Progressive Stock Up 0.2%

NYSE:PGR opened at $215.90 on Friday. 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 company’s fifty day moving average price is $216.96 and its 200-day moving average price is $208.14. The Progressive Corporation has a 1-year low of $189.20 and a 1-year high of $249.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $125.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.83, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.27.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last posted its 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. Progressive had a net margin of 12.84% and a return on equity of 32.92%. The company had revenue of $23.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.49 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $5.40 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that The Progressive Corporation will post 17.76 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 9th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 1st will be issued a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 1st. Progressive’s payout ratio is 2.01%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PGR has been the subject of several research reports. Evercore set a $240.00 price objective on shares of Progressive in a research note on Friday, July 10th. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Progressive in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. Bank of America lowered their price target on Progressive from $313.00 to $308.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Mizuho set a $236.00 price target on Progressive in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on Progressive from $225.00 to $234.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 27th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Progressive presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $236.26.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Lori Niederst sold 7,339 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $209.29, for a total value of $1,535,979.31. Following the sale, the insider owned 42,567 shares in the company, valued at $8,908,847.43. This represents a 14.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider John Murphy sold 8,124 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $212.70, for a total value of $1,727,974.80. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 41,291 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,782,595.70. This trade represents a 16.44% 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 quarter, insiders have sold 113,714 shares of company stock worth $24,466,294. 0.32% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Progressive Company Profile

Progressive Corporation, founded in 1937 and headquartered in Mayfield Village, Ohio, is an insurance company that primarily serves customers in the United States. The company is best known for its personal and commercial auto insurance businesses and distributes products through independent agents, direct channels and digital platforms.

Progressive offers a broad range of insurance products, including coverage for automobiles, motorcycles, boats, recreational vehicles, homes and renters.