Pinion Investment Advisors LLC Acquires Shares of 2,471 The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Pinion Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 2,471 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $592,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in PGR. Webster Bank N. A. acquired a new position in Progressive in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Hager Investment Management Services LLC acquired a new position in Progressive in the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Progressive by 54.7% during the fourth quarter. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 116 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the period. Valley National Advisers Inc. grew its stake in Progressive by 3,000.0% during the fourth quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 124 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Independence Bank of Kentucky increased its holdings in Progressive by 1,650.0% in the 4th quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 175 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 165 shares during the period. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Andrew J. Quigg sold 681 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.10, for a total transaction of $164,870.10. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 33,612 shares in the company, valued at $8,137,465.20. The trade was a 1.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 282,958 shares in the company, valued at approximately $67,530,756.28. This represents a 3.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 56,361 shares of company stock valued at $14,102,075 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on PGR. StockNews.com raised shares of Progressive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Progressive from $277.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Barclays boosted their price target on Progressive from $261.00 to $264.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Progressive from $273.00 to $267.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on Progressive from $331.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Progressive currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $277.59.

Progressive Stock Performance

NYSE PGR opened at $284.95 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $166.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.79, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.42. 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 twelve month low of $187.32 and a twelve month high of $285.28. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $251.13 and a 200 day simple moving average of $251.57.

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%. Sell-side analysts expect that The Progressive Co. will post 14.68 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 16th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 9th were given a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.14%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.