Prudential Financial Inc. Has $137.68 Million Position in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Prudential Financial Inc. lessened its stake in shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 42.7% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 574,608 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 428,156 shares during the quarter. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in Progressive were worth $137,682,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Progressive during the fourth quarter valued at $408,416,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Progressive by 13.2% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,425,792 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,652,235,000 after buying an additional 1,682,213 shares in the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec lifted its position in shares of Progressive by 75.3% during the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 1,494,084 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $379,139,000 after purchasing an additional 641,943 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Progressive by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 53,400,366 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $12,795,262,000 after buying an additional 583,376 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Progressive by 36,819.8% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 568,195 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $136,145,000 after acquiring an additional 566,656 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PGR has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of Progressive from $294.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Progressive from $264.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Progressive from $275.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Progressive from $313.00 to $317.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Progressive from $273.00 to $267.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, December 16th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Progressive has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $281.06.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.66, for a total transaction of $2,386,600.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 282,958 shares in the company, valued at approximately $67,530,756.28. The trade was a 3.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 9,066 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.10, for a total transaction of $2,194,878.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 473,736 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $114,691,485.60. This trade represents a 1.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 65,495 shares of company stock worth $16,668,034. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Progressive Stock Down 0.6 %

PGR stock opened at $273.08 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $160.08 billion, a PE ratio of 18.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.35. The company has a quick ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The Progressive Co. has a 52 week low of $201.34 and a 52 week high of $292.99. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $261.96 and a 200 day simple moving average of $255.01.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The insurance provider reported $4.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.44 by $0.64. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.79% and a net margin of 11.25%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that The Progressive Co. will post 14.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.15%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. Progressive’s payout ratio is 2.78%.

Progressive Company 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.