Amalgamated Bank Sells 1,061 Shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Amalgamated Bank reduced its position in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 124,568 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 1,061 shares during the quarter. Amalgamated Bank’s holdings in Progressive were worth $25,874,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Tredje AP fonden raised its holdings in shares of Progressive by 14.5% in the second quarter. Tredje AP fonden now owns 39,500 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $8,205,000 after acquiring an additional 5,000 shares in the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Progressive by 9.7% in the 2nd quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 15,063 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $3,129,000 after buying an additional 1,329 shares in the last quarter. Argent Trust Co grew its position in shares of Progressive by 7.2% in the 2nd quarter. Argent Trust Co now owns 1,827 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $379,000 after buying an additional 123 shares during the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co grew its position in shares of Progressive by 16.7% in the 2nd quarter. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co now owns 26,944 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $5,597,000 after buying an additional 3,864 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT grew its position in shares of Progressive by 32.7% in the 2nd quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT now owns 4,629 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $961,000 after buying an additional 1,140 shares during the last quarter. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on PGR shares. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Progressive from $232.00 to $225.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Progressive from $243.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Progressive from $239.00 to $237.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Progressive from $281.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Progressive from $294.00 to $312.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $256.12.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Progressive news, insider Steven Broz sold 3,050 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $209.81, for a total transaction of $639,920.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 32,453 shares in the company, valued at $6,808,963.93. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Steven Broz sold 3,050 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $209.81, for a total transaction of $639,920.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 32,453 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,808,963.93. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Andrew J. Quigg sold 3,975 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $214.01, for a total transaction of $850,689.75. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 32,780 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,015,247.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 146,704 shares of company stock worth $33,367,408. Company insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Progressive Stock Performance

PGR opened at $256.91 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.31 and a quick ratio of 0.31. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $231.42 and a 200 day moving average price of $216.02. The Progressive Co. has a 1 year low of $137.59 and a 1 year high of $260.46. The stock has a market cap of $150.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.30, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.35.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 16th. The insurance provider reported $2.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.04 by $0.61. Progressive had a net margin of 10.17% and a return on equity of 33.01%. The firm had revenue of $17.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.54 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.57 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that The Progressive Co. will post 12.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 3rd will be paid a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 3rd. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4.09%.

About Progressive

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.