The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eighteen analysts that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $284.8824.

PGR has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Progressive from $275.00 to $265.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Progressive from $280.00 to $268.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 21st. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on shares of Progressive from $309.00 to $287.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on shares of Progressive from $290.00 to $268.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Progressive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 18th.

Progressive Price Performance

Shares of PGR stock opened at $251.19 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 0.31 and a quick ratio of 0.31. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $253.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $266.24. Progressive has a 12 month low of $228.54 and a 12 month high of $292.99. The company has a market capitalization of $147.25 billion, a PE ratio of 14.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 0.33.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 16th. The insurance provider reported $4.88 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.43 by $0.45. Progressive had a net margin of 12.66% and a return on equity of 35.37%. The company had revenue of $20.08 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.39 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.48 earnings per share. Progressive’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Progressive will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 2nd will be paid a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio is currently 2.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 30,660 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.12, for a total value of $7,423,399.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 506,945 shares in the company, valued at $122,741,523.40. The trade was a 5.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Karen Bailo sold 8,922 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.24, for a total transaction of $2,223,719.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 32,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,061,917.04. This represents a 21.62% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 104,250 shares of company stock valued at $26,332,348 over the last ninety days. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State of Alaska Department of Revenue lifted its position in shares of Progressive by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 68,644 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $19,426,000 after buying an additional 1,800 shares during the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Progressive by 36.4% during the 1st quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 126,826 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $35,893,000 after buying an additional 33,864 shares during the last quarter. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH lifted its position in shares of Progressive by 498.5% during the 1st quarter. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH now owns 5,057 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,431,000 after buying an additional 4,212 shares during the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Progressive during the 1st quarter worth approximately $3,141,000. Finally, TCW Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Progressive by 4.5% during the 1st quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 12,034 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,406,000 after buying an additional 523 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.