Apollon Wealth Management LLC Acquires 909 Shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Apollon Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 6.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 14,252 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 909 shares during the period. Apollon Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Progressive were worth $3,415,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Webster Bank N. A. bought a new position in shares of Progressive in the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Hager Investment Management Services LLC bought a new position in Progressive in the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Valley National Advisers Inc. lifted its stake 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 during the period. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. lifted its position in Progressive by 114.1% during the third quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. now owns 137 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the period. Finally, Independence Bank of Kentucky boosted its stake in Progressive by 1,650.0% during the fourth quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 175 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 165 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PGR has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. HSBC cut Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $267.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Progressive from $302.00 to $313.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Raymond James upgraded shares of Progressive from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $305.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 26th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on Progressive from $273.00 to $267.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, December 16th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $275.71.

Insider Activity at Progressive

In other news, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.09, for a total transaction of $2,680,900.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 292,958 shares in the company, valued at approximately $78,539,110.22. This represents a 3.30 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Lori A. Niederst sold 3,855 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.06, for a total value of $952,416.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 39,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,645,222.40. This represents a 8.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 56,361 shares of company stock valued at $13,983,575. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Progressive Stock Down 0.3 %

NYSE PGR opened at $250.64 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The Progressive Co. has a 12 month low of $180.72 and a 12 month high of $270.62. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $245.24 and its 200 day moving average is $245.60. The stock has a market cap of $146.83 billion, a PE ratio of 17.41, a P/E/G ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 0.42.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last issued its earnings results 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 net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 33.79%. Research analysts predict that The Progressive Co. will post 14.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 16th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 9th were issued a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.16%. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 2.78%.

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.