River Road Asset Management LLC Sells 16,042 Shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

River Road Asset Management LLC cut its stake in shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 14.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 94,397 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 16,042 shares during the quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Progressive were worth $22,618,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of PGR. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Progressive during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $408,416,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Progressive by 13.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,425,792 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $3,652,235,000 after purchasing an additional 1,682,213 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in Progressive by 21.6% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 4,749,628 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,205,266,000 after purchasing an additional 842,109 shares during the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec lifted its position in 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 valued at $379,139,000 after purchasing an additional 641,943 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in Progressive by 36,819.8% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 568,195 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $136,145,000 after purchasing an additional 566,656 shares during the last quarter. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on PGR shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Progressive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of Progressive from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Progressive from $313.00 to $317.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Progressive from $261.00 to $264.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on shares of Progressive from $273.00 to $267.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, December 16th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $276.59.

Progressive Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of Progressive stock opened at $278.74 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $255.01 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $253.08. The company has a market cap of $163.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.36, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.35. The Progressive Co. has a 12-month low of $195.43 and a 12-month high of $287.49.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.44 by $0.64. Progressive had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 33.79%. Research analysts anticipate that The Progressive Co. will post 14.68 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.14%. Progressive’s payout ratio is currently 2.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Progressive

In other news, CAO Mariann Wojtkun Marshall sold 191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.10, for a total value of $46,241.10. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,982 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $964,042.20. This represents a 4.58 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Patrick K. Callahan sold 4,669 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $279.70, for a total transaction of $1,305,919.30. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 15,191 shares in the company, valued at $4,248,922.70. This represents a 23.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 62,257 shares of company stock valued at $15,752,781. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.