Progressive (NYSE:PGR) Hits New 52-Week High After Analyst Upgrade

The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)’s share price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Monday after UBS Group raised their price target on the stock from $275.00 to $285.00. UBS Group currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Progressive traded as high as $287.60 and last traded at $289.16, with a volume of 191491 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $283.69.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on PGR. Bank of America reduced their price objective on Progressive from $333.00 to $318.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Roth Mkm raised their target price on shares of Progressive from $290.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Raymond James raised shares of Progressive from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 26th. Hsbc Global Res downgraded Progressive from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, HSBC cut Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $267.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Progressive currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $281.76.

Insider Transactions at Progressive

In related news, insider Andrew J. Quigg sold 681 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.10, for a total value of $164,870.10. Following the sale, the insider now owns 33,612 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,137,465.20. This represents a 1.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CIO Jonathan S. Bauer sold 1,227 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.00, for a total value of $344,787.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now directly owns 28,393 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,978,433. This represents a 4.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 62,257 shares of company stock worth $15,752,781 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Progressive

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in Progressive by 98.2% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 789 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $189,000 after acquiring an additional 391 shares in the last quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Progressive by 90.9% in the 3rd quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 7,813 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,983,000 after buying an additional 3,720 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in shares of Progressive by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,067,924 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,286,036,000 after buying an additional 330,667 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in Progressive by 2,262.4% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 433,999 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $103,990,000 after buying an additional 415,628 shares during the period. Finally, Signal Advisors Wealth LLC grew its stake in Progressive by 42.3% in the fourth quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC now owns 11,889 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,849,000 after acquiring an additional 3,534 shares during the period. 85.34% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Progressive Trading Up 1.8 %

The firm has a market cap of $169.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.05, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.35. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $258.14 and its 200-day moving average is $254.07. The company has a current ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its 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%. As a group, 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. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.14%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. Progressive’s payout ratio is 2.78%.

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.