PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG) have received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seven research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $49.00.

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on PRG. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $60.00 target price on shares of PROG in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded PROG from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $58.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th.

Insider Activity at PROG

In related news, Director Caroline Sio-Chin Sheu bought 1,650 shares of PROG stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $28.01 per share, with a total value of $46,216.50. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 18,291 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $512,330.91. This represents a 9.92 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Douglas C. Curling purchased 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The shares were bought at an average price of $29.88 per share, for a total transaction of $298,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 45,913 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,371,880.44. This trade represents a 27.85 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 2.74% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of PROG by 2,450.4% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 17,955 shares of the company’s stock worth $478,000 after purchasing an additional 17,251 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in PROG by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 421,769 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,824,000 after acquiring an additional 7,464 shares during the last quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of PROG in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,845,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its position in shares of PROG by 170.3% during the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 29,706 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,255,000 after acquiring an additional 18,715 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Castleark Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of PROG during the fourth quarter worth about $4,416,000. 97.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

PROG Stock Performance

Shares of PRG opened at $25.02 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $32.38 and a 200 day moving average of $40.92. The company has a current ratio of 5.24, a quick ratio of 2.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99. PROG has a 12 month low of $23.50 and a 12 month high of $50.28. The company has a market capitalization of $1.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.51 and a beta of 1.96.

PROG (NYSE:PRG) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $623.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $612.67 million. PROG had a return on equity of 24.25% and a net margin of 8.01%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.72 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that PROG will post 3.45 earnings per share for the current year.

PROG Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 25th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th were issued a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 13th. This is an increase from PROG’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.08%. PROG’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.57%.

About PROG

PROG Holdings, Inc (NYSE:PRG) is a financial technology holding company based in Salt Lake City, Utah with three business segments: Progressive Leasing, which offers lease-to-own transactions primarily to credit-challenged consumers through e-commerce and point-of-sale retail partners, via online, mobile, and in-store solutions; Vive Financial, which provides consumers who may not qualify for traditional prime lending with a variety of second-look, revolving credit products through private label and branded credit cards; and Four Technologies, which provides consumers of all credit backgrounds Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options through four interest-free installments via its platform, Four.