Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. Increases Stock Holdings in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. increased its stake in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 230.7% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 9,206 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,422 shares during the period. Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in Progressive were worth $1,466,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of PGR. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Progressive by 14.1% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 21,554,503 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $3,002,542,000 after purchasing an additional 2,666,449 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in shares of Progressive by 10.5% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 6,916,460 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $963,463,000 after purchasing an additional 655,706 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Progressive by 2.8% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,982,841 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $833,410,000 after purchasing an additional 162,916 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its stake in shares of Progressive by 2.9% in the third quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 5,641,166 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $785,814,000 after buying an additional 156,332 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Progressive by 31.8% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,781,075 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $666,004,000 after acquiring an additional 1,154,591 shares during the period. 85.34% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on PGR shares. Roth Mkm boosted their price target on Progressive from $215.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Bank of America lowered their price target on shares of Progressive from $279.00 to $273.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Progressive from $161.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 25th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Progressive from $202.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Progressive from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Progressive presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $211.88.

Progressive Stock Performance

NYSE:PGR opened at $214.02 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $125.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.91, a PEG ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 0.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a current ratio of 0.36. The Progressive Co. has a fifty-two week low of $111.41 and a fifty-two week high of $216.21. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $201.17 and a 200 day moving average price of $176.58.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 12th. The insurance provider reported $3.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.20 by $0.74. Progressive had a return on equity of 29.43% and a net margin of 8.89%. The business had revenue of $18.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.88 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.65 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that The Progressive Co. will post 11.22 EPS for the current year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 4th were given a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 3rd. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.19%. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is presently 4.09%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Devin C. Johnson sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $208.33, for a total value of $208,330.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 7,176 shares in the company, valued at $1,494,976.08. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, Director Devin C. Johnson sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.33, for a total value of $208,330.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 7,176 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,494,976.08. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Patrick K. Callahan sold 29,675 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.26, for a total transaction of $5,645,965.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 15,189 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,889,859.14. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 39,139 shares of company stock worth $7,458,139 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

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.