Progressive (NYSE:PGR) Posts Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.74 EPS

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday. The insurance provider reported $3.94 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.20 by $0.74, Briefing.com reports. Progressive had a return on equity of 29.43% and a net margin of 8.89%. The business had revenue of $18.96 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.88 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.65 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis.

Progressive Price Performance

Progressive stock opened at $203.90 on Monday. Progressive has a 12 month low of $111.41 and a 12 month high of $212.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.31. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $197.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $173.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $119.42 billion, a PE ratio of 20.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.35.

Progressive Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 4th were paid a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 3rd. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4.09%.

Insider Transactions at Progressive

In other news, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 5,939 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.24, for a total transaction of $1,005,116.36. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 465,737 shares in the company, valued at $78,821,329.88. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, insider Andrew J. Quigg sold 551 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.24, for a total transaction of $93,251.24. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 27,921 shares in the company, valued at $4,725,350.04. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 5,939 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.24, for a total value of $1,005,116.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 465,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $78,821,329.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 44,629 shares of company stock worth $8,348,176 over the last 90 days. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of PGR. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Progressive in the fourth quarter worth $1,078,831,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Progressive in the fourth quarter valued at $840,885,000. Viking Global Investors LP grew its holdings in Progressive by 412.0% in the fourth quarter. Viking Global Investors LP now owns 5,863,559 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $933,948,000 after purchasing an additional 4,718,237 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Progressive by 14.1% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 21,554,503 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $3,002,542,000 after purchasing an additional 2,666,449 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in Progressive by 25.4% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 6,721,345 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $871,826,000 after purchasing an additional 1,361,665 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on PGR shares. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Progressive from $192.00 to $202.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Progressive from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. HSBC boosted their price objective on Progressive from $174.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Progressive from $159.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Progressive from $232.00 to $238.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $202.00.

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.