California Public Employees Retirement System Has $596.92 Million Stake in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its holdings in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 1.5% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 2,491,193 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 35,954 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Progressive were worth $596,915,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of PGR. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Progressive by 54.7% in the 4th quarter. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 116 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. LRI Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of Progressive by 16.5% in the third quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 296 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $76,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. Washington Trust Bank lifted its position in shares of Progressive by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Washington Trust Bank now owns 1,066 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $255,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. SYM FINANCIAL Corp boosted its holdings in Progressive by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. SYM FINANCIAL Corp now owns 1,602 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $384,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Monument Capital Management boosted its holdings in Progressive by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Monument Capital Management now owns 13,762 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,298,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on PGR shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of Progressive from $294.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Progressive from $300.00 to $307.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Progressive from $251.00 to $256.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Progressive from $313.00 to $317.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Progressive from $275.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 14th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Progressive presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $281.06.

Progressive Trading Up 1.6 %

NYSE:PGR opened at $279.13 on Friday. The Progressive Co. has a 1 year low of $201.34 and a 1 year high of $292.99. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $265.32 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $255.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.31 and a quick ratio of 0.30. The company has a market cap of $163.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.35.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The insurance provider reported $4.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.44 by $0.64. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.79% and a net margin of 11.25%. As a group, analysts expect that The Progressive Co. will post 14.68 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 2.78%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Devin C. Johnson sold 400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.04, for a total value of $110,016.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 8,370 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,302,084.80. This represents a 4.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.66, for a total value of $2,386,600.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 282,958 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $67,530,756.28. This represents a 3.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 66,255 shares of company stock worth $16,877,471 in the last three months. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.