The Progressive Corporation $PGR Shares Sold by Royal London Asset Management Ltd.

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. lessened its stake in shares of The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) by 1.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 1,111,635 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 12,054 shares during the quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in Progressive were worth $238,135,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its position in Progressive by 31.3% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 498,363 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $113,488,000 after purchasing an additional 118,724 shares during the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Progressive by 61.3% in the 4th quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 93,911 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $21,386,000 after purchasing an additional 35,702 shares during the last quarter. Storgate LLC acquired a new position in Progressive in the 4th quarter valued at about $374,000. Martingale Asset Management L P grew its stake in shares of Progressive by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Martingale Asset Management L P now owns 97,513 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $22,206,000 after buying an additional 2,464 shares during the period. Finally, Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. increased its holdings in shares of Progressive by 42.5% during the 4th quarter. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. now owns 61,985 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $14,115,000 after buying an additional 18,483 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Progressive news, insider Steven Broz sold 1,157 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total value of $231,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 28,668 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,733,600. This trade represents a 3.88% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider John Jo Murphy sold 5,916 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total transaction of $1,183,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 41,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,258,000. This trade represents a 12.53% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 7,343 shares of company stock worth $1,470,355 in the last ninety days. 0.32% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PGR has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on Progressive from $216.00 to $215.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 24th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Progressive from $218.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 23rd. Roth Mkm set a $235.00 price target on Progressive in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Evercore reissued a “negative” rating on shares of Progressive in a research report on Wednesday, March 18th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Progressive from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. Six investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $238.11.

Progressive Stock Performance

Shares of Progressive stock opened at $202.86 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $199.20 and a 200 day moving average of $208.05. The Progressive Corporation has a 12 month low of $189.20 and a 12 month high of $269.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $118.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.86 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 15th. The insurance provider reported $4.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 net margin of 12.92% and a return on equity of 33.47%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $4.37 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that The Progressive Corporation will post 16.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 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.