DAVENPORT & Co LLC Grows Stock Holdings in The Progressive Corporation $PGR

DAVENPORT & Co LLC grew its stake in The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) by 144.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 15,804 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,328 shares during the period. DAVENPORT & Co LLC’s holdings in Progressive were worth $3,903,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Progressive in the second quarter worth approximately $2,156,939,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its position in shares of Progressive by 32.8% during the 2nd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 10,972,574 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,928,141,000 after buying an additional 2,709,417 shares in the last quarter. Axiom Investors LLC DE purchased a new position in shares of Progressive during the first quarter valued at $194,557,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Progressive by 0.9% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 54,516,288 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $14,548,217,000 after acquiring an additional 493,332 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Temasek Holdings Private Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Progressive in the second quarter valued at about $117,057,000. Institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PGR has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, September 21st. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Progressive from $301.38 to $300.60 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Progressive from $301.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. William Blair cut Progressive from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 18th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on Progressive from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $264.98.

Progressive Stock Performance

Shares of PGR stock opened at $227.15 on Friday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $222.51 and its 200-day simple moving average is $239.33. The company has a market cap of $133.20 billion, a PE ratio of 12.46, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.36. The company has a current ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The Progressive Corporation has a 12-month low of $199.90 and a 12-month high of $292.99.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 15th. The insurance provider reported $4.45 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.04 by ($0.59). Progressive had a return on equity of 33.88% and a net margin of 12.57%.The business had revenue of $21.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $21.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.58 EPS. Analysts expect that The Progressive Corporation will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 2nd. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Progressive’s payout ratio is presently 2.19%.

Insider Activity

In other Progressive news, insider Steven Broz sold 1,345 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $228.29, for a total transaction of $307,050.05. Following the transaction, the insider owned 27,698 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,323,176.42. This represents a 4.63% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.48, for a total transaction of $1,142,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 223,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,956,523.52. This represents a 2.19% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 9,034 shares of company stock worth $2,047,481. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Progressive Profile

Progressive Corporation is a large U.S.-based property and casualty insurer that primarily underwrites personal auto insurance along with a broad suite of related products. Its offerings include coverage for private passenger automobiles, commercial auto fleets, motorcycles, boats and recreational vehicles, as well as homeowners, renters, umbrella and other specialty P&C products. Progressive also provides claims handling, risk management and related services to individual and commercial policyholders.

The company distributes its products through a mix of direct channels—online and by phone—and an extensive independent agent network.