Progressive (NYSE:PGR) Price Target Raised to $333.00 at Wells Fargo & Company

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) had its price target hoisted by Wells Fargo & Company from $328.00 to $333.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the insurance provider’s stock.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on PGR. Morgan Stanley set a $330.00 price objective on Progressive and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th. Barclays upped their price objective on Progressive from $285.00 to $297.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on Progressive from $327.00 to $319.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Progressive from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $312.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $288.88.

Progressive Stock Up 0.4%

Progressive stock opened at $261.26 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 0.29 and a current ratio of 0.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $153.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 0.40. Progressive has a fifty-two week low of $204.88 and a fifty-two week high of $292.99. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $275.34 and its two-hundred day moving average is $264.44.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 16th. The insurance provider reported $4.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.28 by $0.37. Progressive had a return on equity of 33.50% and a net margin of 11.10%. The business had revenue of $22.21 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $21.87 billion. Analysts predict that Progressive will post 14.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Progressive news, Director Devin C. Johnson sold 400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.04, for a total transaction of $110,016.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 8,370 shares in the company, valued at $2,302,084.80. This represents a 4.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.59, for a total value of $2,685,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 248,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $66,616,766.16. This trade represents a 3.88% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 34,157 shares of company stock worth $9,352,400 over the last three months. 0.34% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Progressive

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of PGR. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Progressive in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,843,045,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Progressive in the first quarter valued at about $1,473,180,000. GQG Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Progressive by 61.4% in the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 8,346,133 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,362,039,000 after buying an additional 3,174,632 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Progressive by 39,285.0% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,046,037 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $862,059,000 after buying an additional 3,038,303 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Progressive during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $408,416,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

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.