Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Lowers Progressive (NYSE:PGR) Price Target to $268.00

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) had its price target dropped by research analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $290.00 to $268.00 in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “market perform” rating on the insurance provider’s stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods’ price objective would indicate a potential upside of 8.73% from the stock’s previous close.

PGR has been the topic of a number of other reports. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Progressive from $291.00 to $280.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Progressive from $282.00 to $288.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Evercore ISI downgraded Progressive from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $275.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Progressive from $267.00 to $287.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Progressive from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $312.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Progressive currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $287.63.

Progressive Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of NYSE:PGR opened at $246.48 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $267.67 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $265.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 0.34 and a quick ratio of 0.29. Progressive has a one year low of $208.13 and a one year high of $292.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $144.49 billion, a PE ratio of 13.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 0.37.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 16th. The insurance provider reported $4.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.43 by $0.45. The business had revenue of $20.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.39 billion. Progressive had a return on equity of 35.37% and a net margin of 12.66%. Progressive’s revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.48 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Progressive will post 14.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Progressive

In related news, insider Steven Broz sold 1,267 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.38, for a total transaction of $329,901.46. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 27,621 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,191,955.98. This represents a 4.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO John P. Sauerland sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $263.79, for a total transaction of $2,637,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 228,024 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,150,450.96. This represents a 4.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 42,705 shares of company stock valued at $11,450,948 over the last ninety days. 0.34% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Progressive

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. State of Alaska Department of Revenue lifted its stake in Progressive by 2.7% during the first quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 68,644 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $19,426,000 after purchasing an additional 1,800 shares during the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Progressive by 36.4% in the first quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 126,826 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $35,893,000 after buying an additional 33,864 shares in the last quarter. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH grew its position in Progressive by 498.5% in the first quarter. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH now owns 5,057 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,431,000 after acquiring an additional 4,212 shares during the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Progressive during the first quarter worth about $3,141,000. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Progressive by 16.5% in the first quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 93,463 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $26,451,000 after acquiring an additional 13,231 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.