Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Decreases Stock Holdings in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS decreased its holdings in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 2.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 124,561 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 2,933 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in Progressive were worth $29,846,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in shares of Progressive by 98.2% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 789 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $189,000 after purchasing an additional 391 shares during the last quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC increased its position in shares of Progressive by 90.9% during the 3rd quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 7,813 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,983,000 after purchasing an additional 3,720 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in shares of Progressive by 7.0% during 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 purchasing an additional 330,667 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of 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 valued at $103,990,000 after purchasing an additional 415,628 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Signal Advisors Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of Progressive by 42.3% during the 4th quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC now owns 11,889 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,849,000 after purchasing an additional 3,534 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Roth Mkm upped their price target on shares of Progressive from $290.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. HSBC lowered shares of Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $267.00 target price for the company. in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price 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. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Progressive from $300.00 to $307.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of Progressive from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $281.76.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 1,542 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.66, for a total value of $435,861.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 268,024 shares in the company, valued at $75,759,663.84. This trade represents a 0.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CIO Jonathan S. Bauer sold 1,696 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.66, for a total value of $479,391.36. Following the completion of the sale, the executive now owns 26,697 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,546,174.02. This represents a 5.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 65,495 shares of company stock worth $16,668,034. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Progressive Stock Down 3.6 %

NYSE PGR opened at $273.19 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a current ratio of 0.31. The company has a market capitalization of $160.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.97, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.35. The Progressive Co. has a one year low of $201.34 and a one year high of $292.99. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $260.59 and a 200-day moving average price of $254.70.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The insurance provider reported $4.08 EPS for the quarter, beating 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, equities analysts predict that The Progressive Co. will post 14.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.15%. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is currently 2.78%.

Progressive 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.