Sabal Trust CO Sells 2,399 Shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Sabal Trust CO lowered its holdings in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 14.5% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 14,163 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 2,399 shares during the quarter. Sabal Trust CO’s holdings in Progressive were worth $2,942,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of PGR. Sachetta LLC bought a new stake in shares of Progressive in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Northwest Bank & Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of Progressive in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Indiana Trust & Investment Management CO bought a new stake in shares of Progressive in the first quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Hilltop National Bank raised its position in shares of Progressive by 126.0% in the second quarter. Hilltop National Bank now owns 165 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 92 shares during the period. Finally, Register Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Progressive during the first quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on PGR. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Progressive from $256.00 to $255.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Progressive from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $210.00 to $245.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of Progressive from $256.00 to $257.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. HSBC raised shares of Progressive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $253.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Progressive from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $230.00 to $262.00 in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $234.41.

Progressive Price Performance

Shares of Progressive stock opened at $252.20 on Friday. The Progressive Co. has a 52-week low of $131.87 and a 52-week high of $254.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $147.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 0.35. The company has a fifty day moving average of $221.26 and a 200-day moving average of $210.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a current ratio of 0.31.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 16th. The insurance provider reported $2.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.04 by $0.61. Progressive had a net margin of 10.17% and a return on equity of 33.01%. The company had revenue of $17.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.54 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.57 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that The Progressive Co. will post 12.2 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 3rd will be paid a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 3rd. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.16%. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 4.09%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Mariann Wojtkun Marshall sold 650 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.11, for a total value of $135,271.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 3,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $828,485.91. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Progressive news, CAO Mariann Wojtkun Marshall sold 650 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.11, for a total transaction of $135,271.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 3,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $828,485.91. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 43,371 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $214.01, for a total transaction of $9,281,827.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 517,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $110,665,641.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 103,984 shares of company stock valued at $22,564,766. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Progressive Profile

The Progressive Corporation, an insurance holding company, provides personal and commercial auto, personal residential and commercial property, business related general liability, and other specialty property-casualty insurance products and related services in the United States. It operates in three segments: Personal Lines, Commercial Lines, and Property.