Pitcairn Co. Has $5.77 Million Stake in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Pitcairn Co. lessened its position in shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 3.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 24,070 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 833 shares during the period. Pitcairn Co.’s holdings in Progressive were worth $5,767,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of PGR. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its holdings in Progressive by 98.2% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 789 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $189,000 after purchasing an additional 391 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in shares of Progressive by 2,262.4% in 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 acquiring an additional 415,628 shares in the last quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of Progressive by 42.3% in the fourth quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC now owns 11,889 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,849,000 after acquiring an additional 3,534 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in Progressive by 30.5% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,069,697 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $255,882,000 after acquiring an additional 249,958 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new position in Progressive during the third quarter valued at approximately $35,253,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Progressive

In related news, insider Andrew J. Quigg sold 681 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the insider now owns 33,612 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,137,465.20. This trade represents a 1.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.94, for a total transaction of $2,759,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 258,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $71,199,142.56. This represents a 3.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 66,255 shares of company stock valued at $17,250,271. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Progressive Trading Down 1.0 %

PGR stock opened at $281.38 on Thursday. The Progressive Co. has a 52 week low of $201.34 and a 52 week high of $292.99. The company has a market capitalization of $164.96 billion, a PE ratio of 19.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.38. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $267.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $256.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a current ratio of 0.31.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The insurance provider reported $4.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that The Progressive Co. will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The business 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 0.14%. Progressive’s payout ratio is 2.78%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PGR has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Bank of America dropped their price objective on Progressive from $318.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. HSBC cut shares of Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $267.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of Progressive from $294.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. StockNews.com upgraded Progressive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, March 22nd. Finally, Raymond James upgraded Progressive from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 26th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Progressive presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $281.06.

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.