The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) Shares Acquired by Loomis Sayles & Co. L P

Loomis Sayles & Co. L P lifted its position in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 7.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 4,120 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 295 shares during the period. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P’s holdings in Progressive were worth $987,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. GQG Partners LLC raised its holdings in Progressive by 67.6% in the 4th quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 5,171,501 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,239,143,000 after acquiring an additional 2,085,833 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Progressive in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $408,416,000. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Progressive by 13.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,425,792 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $3,652,235,000 after purchasing an additional 1,682,213 shares during the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec lifted its position in Progressive by 75.3% during the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 1,494,084 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $379,139,000 after buying an additional 641,943 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Progressive by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 53,400,366 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $12,795,262,000 after buying an additional 583,376 shares during the last quarter. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Progressive from $251.00 to $256.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Progressive from $313.00 to $317.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Raymond James raised shares of Progressive from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 26th. StockNews.com raised shares of Progressive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 22nd. Finally, HSBC lowered Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $267.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Six equities research 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, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $281.06.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Progressive news, Director Devin C. Johnson sold 400 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.04, for a total value of $110,016.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 8,370 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,302,084.80. This represents a 4.56 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 11,021 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.29, for a total transaction of $2,681,299.09. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 473,736 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $115,255,231.44. This trade represents a 2.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 66,255 shares of company stock worth $16,877,471. Company insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Progressive Price Performance

Shares of PGR opened at $279.13 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $163.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.38, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.35. The Progressive Co. has a fifty-two week low of $201.34 and a fifty-two week high of $292.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $265.32 and its 200 day moving average price is $255.86.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The insurance provider reported $4.08 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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%. On average, research analysts forecast that The Progressive Co. will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed 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. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.14%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.