Cetera Investment Advisers Sells 5,109 Shares of The Progressive Corporation $PGR

Cetera Investment Advisers lowered its stake in The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) by 3.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 129,027 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 5,109 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers’ holdings in Progressive were worth $25,578,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Allstate Corp grew its holdings in Progressive by 106.1% in the 4th quarter. Allstate Corp now owns 44,513 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $10,136,000 after acquiring an additional 22,915 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Progressive during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,836,094,000. Investment House LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Progressive during the fourth quarter worth about $8,447,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Progressive by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,807,068 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $411,506,000 after purchasing an additional 97,275 shares during the period. Finally, Van Cleef Asset Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Progressive by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Van Cleef Asset Management Inc now owns 761,587 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $173,429,000 after purchasing an additional 9,017 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.34% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider John Jo Murphy sold 5,916 shares of Progressive stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total transaction of $1,183,200.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 41,290 shares in the company, valued at $8,258,000. The trade was a 12.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Steven Broz sold 1,157 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.76, for a total value of $236,907.32. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 27,511 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,633,152.36. The trade was a 4.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 15,230 shares of company stock worth $3,165,817 in the last quarter. 0.32% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PGR has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. HSBC upped their price target on Progressive from $214.00 to $221.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, July 6th. William Blair reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Progressive in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Progressive from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $208.00 target price on Progressive in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Progressive in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fifteen have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Progressive has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $236.11.

Progressive Stock Performance

Shares of PGR opened at $213.85 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 0.32 and a quick ratio of 0.27. The Progressive Corporation has a one year low of $189.20 and a one year high of $254.93. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $209.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $205.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $124.96 billion, a PE ratio of 10.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.26.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 2nd were paid a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 2nd. Progressive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 2.01%.

About Progressive

Progressive Corporation is a large U.S.-based property and casualty insurer that primarily underwrites personal auto insurance along with a broad suite of related products. Its offerings include coverage for private passenger automobiles, commercial auto fleets, motorcycles, boats and recreational vehicles, as well as homeowners, renters, umbrella and other specialty P&C products. Progressive also provides claims handling, risk management and related services to individual and commercial policyholders.

The company distributes its products through a mix of direct channels—online and by phone—and an extensive independent agent network.