Avestar Capital LLC Purchases 271 Shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Avestar Capital LLC raised its position in shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 8.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 3,341 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 271 shares during the period. Avestar Capital LLC’s holdings in Progressive were worth $801,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Webster Bank N. A. bought a new stake in shares of Progressive in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Hager Investment Management Services LLC purchased a new position in Progressive during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Progressive by 54.7% in the 4th quarter. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 116 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Progressive by 3,000.0% in the 4th quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 124 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. lifted its position in shares of Progressive by 114.1% in the 3rd quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. now owns 137 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the period. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Progressive

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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 33,612 shares in the company, valued at $8,137,465.20. The trade was a 1.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Mariann Wojtkun Marshall sold 191 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 3rd. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $964,042.20. This represents a 4.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 56,361 shares of company stock worth $13,983,575 over the last three months. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Progressive Stock Up 2.0 %

NYSE:PGR opened at $262.02 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $244.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $246.64. The company has a market cap of $153.49 billion, a PE ratio of 18.20, a P/E/G ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 0.42. The Progressive Co. has a twelve month low of $182.23 and a twelve month high of $270.62. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The insurance provider reported $4.08 earnings per share 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%. Analysts anticipate that The Progressive Co. will post 14.44 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 16th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 9th were issued a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is presently 2.78%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PGR has been the topic of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Progressive from $302.00 to $313.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price target on Progressive from $295.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Progressive from $251.00 to $256.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Progressive from $277.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Progressive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $275.71.

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.