Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC Buys 76 Shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR)

Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC raised its position in shares of The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) by 12.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 672 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 76 shares during the period. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC’s holdings in Progressive were worth $161,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Davis Capital Management acquired a new position in Progressive in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. boosted its holdings in Progressive by 114.1% in the 3rd quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. now owns 137 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the period. Kimelman & Baird LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Progressive in the second quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new stake in shares of Progressive during the 3rd quarter worth $49,000. Finally, Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Progressive during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $49,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PGR has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Hsbc Global Res downgraded Progressive from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. HSBC cut shares of 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. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $310.00 price target on shares of Progressive in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on Progressive from $295.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Finally, Roth Mkm boosted their price target on Progressive from $270.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Progressive has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $275.24.

Progressive Stock Down 1.6 %

NYSE PGR traded down $3.91 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $235.08. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,475,623 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,307,924. The Progressive Co. has a twelve month low of $164.98 and a twelve month high of $270.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $137.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.08, a PEG ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 0.41. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $251.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $240.97. The company has a current ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The insurance provider reported $3.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.40 by $0.18. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.10% and a net margin of 11.27%. The business had revenue of $19.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.95 billion. Analysts anticipate that The Progressive Co. will post 13.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 9th 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 0.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. Progressive’s payout ratio is 2.91%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.09, for a total value of $2,680,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 292,958 shares in the company, valued at $78,539,110.22. This trade represents a 3.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Andrew J. Quigg sold 681 shares of the company’s 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 $8,137,465.20. The trade was a 1.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 32,919 shares of company stock worth $8,222,168. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.